Wizards, Superheroes, and Jackalopes
by Willow-Bee the Cat
Summary: Harry is sent to live with relatives in the US after the events of GOF. There he meets Luna Lovegood. The problem is, his relatives are superheroes. HPDC Comics XOver. HarryLuna
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own or make a profit from Harry Potter or DC Comics.

Spoilers: everything for HP

Pairing: Harry/Luna, Ron/Hermione, Neville/Ginny, and maybe some mentions of Mia/Connor

Rating: T, pg-13

Timeframe: Begins during GOF and ends… well I haven't figured that out yet.

Chapter 1

Petunia Dursely looked through her mother's old papers desperately. There had to be some record of Aunt Moira.

Aha!

An invitation to the wedding of Moira Moore and Robert Queen. Below it was an invitation to the christening of Oliver Queen.

Perfect. Dumbledor had ony said that the boy had to stay with a member of his mother's family. Oliver Queen was her first cousin. The son of her mother's younger sister.

Now to track down his phone number.

* * *

Hearing the phone ring, Oliver Queen sighed. This was far too early to be awake. He had only come bock from patrolling a couple hours earlier. Mia was with the Titans this weekend and Connor was in New York visiting his friend Kyle. Which meant he had to get up and answer the phone.

"Hello?" he said drowsily.

"May I speak to Oliver Queen?" said a soft female voice with a British accent.

'Speaking." What could this be about?

"I'm not sure if you remember me, but I'm Petunia Dursely," she said. "We only met once and you must have been two at the time. My mother was Niamh Moore, the older sister of your mother."

Niamh? He hadn't thought about Aunt Niamh in years. She'd had two daughters if he remembered correctly. Petunia was about eight or nine years older and Lily his age.

"She married that Evans guy, right?"

"Uh… yes. John Evans. Dursely is my married name." She paused. "My sister, Lily, and her husband died fourteen years ago this Halloween and I became legal guardian of their son, Harry Potter."

This had gone on long enough. Even if she was family, he was too tired to go on like this much longer. The woman obviously wanted something.

"Why are you calling?"

"You're the only family I, and well, Harry have left," Petunia said quickly. "There have been cutbacks at the drill company my husband works at and we can't afford to take care of Harry along with our own son."

"Petunia, I-"

"Harry goes to a boarding school in Scotland except for June, July, and August. He has a trust fund that pays for it. You'd only need to take care of him during the summer. Please, if you don't take him, my husband is going to put him into foster care."

* * *

"… my husband is going to put him into foster care."

Petunia couldn't help but smirk. Lily may have been the pretty and book smart one, but Petunia was the manipulative one. The freak would be gone. And those other freaks wouldn't be able to do anything about it because he would still be with family.

Oliver seemed rather resigned when he started talking again. "I'll have my lawyer contact you. I'm assuming that you'll be giving guardianship to me. When does he come back from school?"

"June first. Feel free to pick him up at Kings Cross. His train gets in at five in the afternoon." Petunia could barely contain her excitement. Finally! She was free of the boy. "I'll talk to him before then so that he knows to go with you. And I'll send him his passport. "

* * *

Harry watched as an owl landed in front of him. Except for during the summer he rarely received mail. Well, there was the mail sent to him because of the Triwizard Tournament. Harry cautiously took the mail from the owl. Hopefully it was not jinxed.

"Harry, who's it from?"

He looked up at Hermione. "Just some more fan mail. I'm going to the library to look up more spells."

"Oh," Hermione said, looking rather excited. "Do you need any help?"

"After lunch," Harry said a little too quickly. "I think I need some time to study on my own. The third task is in a month, after all."

Harry left the Great Hall, moving as quickly as he could without drawing attention to himself. Hopefully Hermione would not question the lie he told her until after he read the letter.

Ignoring the looks sent his way, Harry went as far into the library as possible. He found a quiet study niche in the back. There was only one other person there.

A girl with straggly blonde hair and a wand tucked behind her ear sat at a table reading a book that made Hogwarts, A History look like light reading in comparison. A Ravenclaw judging by her robes. She glanced up at him once, her too large silvery eyes glancing at his robes, then scar and going back to the book.

Harry read the address on the envelope. The script was neat and small. Aunt Petunia's handwriting. Aunt Petunia had never sent him a letter before. What could this be about? Was she wishing him luck on the final task?

The fourteen year old snorted. It was much more likely that the letter would tell him to find a way to get himself killed during the task.

Harry opened the envelope and took out the letter. As he unfolded the letter, a small booklet fell onto the table. He picked up the booklet.

A passport. With a picture of him inside. And his name. Why would Aunt Petunia send him a passport? Did she buy him a plane ticket for Siberia? Now that was a distinct possibility.

He started to read the letter.

* * *

Boy,

You will be staying with your cousin, Oliver Queen from now on. He is your new legal guardian. He does not know about your freakishness. It would be best to keep it that way. Your grandmother, Niamh Evans and Mr. Queen's mother were sisters. Mr. Queen will pick you up from Kings Cross when you return from school. He has agreed to let you continue at that… place.

Petunia Dursely

* * *

Well, that explained a lot. At least they weren't leaving him on the street somewhere. Maybe he should get Hermione to do some research on this Oliver Queen bloke. He was sure he had heard the name before.

Harry shook his head. He'd figure it out later.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," said a female voice. She sounded almost as if she was in a daze.

Harry looked up. The blonde girl was staring at him with those silvery eyes of hers.

"Do what?"

"Shake your head like that." The girl seemed rather… dotty. "It won't get rid of the Wrackspurt."

"The what?"

"Wrackspurt. They're invisible, you see. They float through people's ears and make your brain go fuzzy."

"Right." Harry stretched the word into two syllables.

The girl shut the book and picked up her bag. It was then that Harry noticed her unusual clothing. A yellow shirt with a green flower design on it and a red and purple striped skirt. A necklace of butterbeer caps hung around her neck. On one leg was a blue knee high and on the other an orange knee high.

"Are you studying for the tournament?"

"Yeah," Harry said unsurely.

"Be careful," she said. Then the girl looked off to the side. "I wonder when Moody will reveal himself for the doppelganger that he is."

"What are you talking about? Professor Moody…" Harry stopped talking. What was the use? The girl had already wandered away.

* * *

Ollie waited until they were seated before he started to talk. Connor seemed curious, but did not look like he was about to ask any questions. Mia was mutilating her food, occasionally shooting him a look that said rather clearly that she knew something was up.

Finally, Mia broke the silence. "What is going on?"

"A cousin of mine will be coming to live here," said Ollie. "His aunt was quick to dump him on us. The information I found on the boy was… incomplete, at best."

"Why you?" asked Mia

"The boy-Harry, is your second cousin, Connor. His mother, Lily, was my first cousin. Other than Petunia-Lily's sister- and Petunia's son, Harry has no family other than us." Ollie took out a manila folder. "Harry's father was a man by the name of James Potter. There is no record of his existence other than his and Lily's marriage certificate and Harry's birth certificate. Lily seems to have disappeared completely after the age of eleven. The marriage certificate, birth certificate, and her presence in a picture of her parents' funeral the only evidence that she was still alive.

"According to Petunia, Lily and James Potter died fourteen years ago on Halloween in a car accident and left their son to her. There is no obituary, no death certificate. Nothing."

"What about Harry?" said Connor.

"A rather bright boy, according to his teachers. Until he started second grade, that is. After that point, he changed from a strait A student to a C- and D+ student. His grades were always a little bellow those of his cousin, Dudley. According to what I could find, Social Services visited his home on one occasion to investigate a teacher's claim that Harry was being neglected."

"What happened?" Mia looked a little disturbed by this.

"The social worker decided that the Dursleys were wonderful parents, the teacher was fired, and Harry missed a week of school because he was in the hospital recovering from-and I quote 'falling down the stairs'. After that, there are several reports of Dudley beating up Harry."

"The Dursleys were abusive, then," said Connor.

"Definitely. But there's no proof. Between seven and, well, now, Harry has gotten into trouble with the police for fights on several occasions. At the age of eleven, Harry seemed to disappear during the school year. I have yet to find a record of what 'private boarding school in Scotland' he is attending. Although, according to Petunia, Lily and James went to the same school."

"When is he coming here?"

"I'm picking him up from King's Cross on June first. You're welcome to come with me, Mia. It might be best if he were to meet you and Connor there instead of just me. Before then, why don't you two figure out which room to give him and see about getting him furniture."

"How old is he?" Mia asked.

"He'll be fifteen this summer."

* * *

On the train back to London, Harry thought about what this cousin of his would be like. He had never gotten around to asking Hermione to research him, or even told she and Ron about having a new legal guardian. One question bothered him, though.

"What's a doppleganger?"

"A double. Either a spirit or a physical form," Hermione said without looking up from her book. "Generally considered bad luck."

"How did you know that?" asked Ron.

"Honestly Ron. Don't you ever read?"


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Mia Dearden was unsure, at best, about this Potter boy. She'd taken a look at what the police had questioned him about, taken him in for, and on one occasion charged him with. Combined with the medical records Ollie had scrounged up, this boy had not led a very good life so far.

This led to several questions about what his attitude would be. Would Harry be some thug? A criminal in training? Too submissive to stand up for himself? Angry at the world and everybody in it? What psychological scars would he carry with him? Few ever made it out of a situation like that without a scar or two.

She was pretty sure that was why Ollie had revealed so much information about Harry to herself and Connor. A warning to tread carefully around the boy. It had been decided that until they knew if they could trust Harry or not, there would be no mention of Green Arrow or Speedy.

It had been decided that she would accompany Ollie to pick up Harry while Connor waited back in Star City. Best to have somebody on hand in case some super villain attacked.

* * *

Ginny yawned. They would soon be at King's Cross. After spending the beginning of the ride with other friends, she had moved to Luna's compartment. Luna Lovegood was a rather strange witch from Ottery st. Catchpole.

It was well known among the community that Luna had not been… quite right in the head since her mother's death. All those creatures she thought up. Rather strange really. But since Luna really had no other friends, Ginny made a point of stopping in to see her and occasionally hang out with her.

"So what are you doing this summer?" Ginny asked.

"Daddy and I are going to the United States. We're going to spend the summer there trying to prove the existence of Jackalopes," Luna said in her usual dreamy voice. "I do hope we can capture one on film. It would be a perfect picture for the first page of the Quibbler."

"Jackalopes don't really exist," said a familiar female voice.

"Hi, Hermione," said Ginny. "What are you doing here?"

"I just wanted to tell you my parents said yes to me spending the summer with you."

Luna cocked her head to the side. "How can you say Jackalopes don't exist?"

"There is absolutely no evidence to suggest the existence of such a creature."

"Then what do you call all of those stories?"

"Just that, stories. Really, you should do more research on the subject. It's quite obvious that stories about Jackalopes stem from some transfiguration gone wrong that a muggle happened upon."

"They do exist," Luna insisted. "And I'll prove it!"

* * *

Harry waved goodbye to his friends. He waited until they were gone before he started searching for Oliver Queen. Having no idea what the man looked like, this turned out to be rather difficult.

Remembering that they would be leaving the country, he opened Hedwig's cage.

"Wait three days and then come find me," he explained to her quietly. "I'm not sure where I'll be, but definitely somewhere in the United States of America."

After Hedwig had flown off, Harry continued his search. He really hadn't wanted to deal with whatever customs or quarantine would do to Hedwig.

"Are you Harry Potter?"

He turned to look at a girl. She was pretty enough, if a little too skinny. Long blonde hair pulled up in a ponytail and the latest muggle fashion adorning her body.

"Yeah. You are?"

"Mia Dearden," she said. "Ollie and I have been looking for you. That aunt of yours only gave us an old school photo." She waved her arm once to gain the attention of somebody.

A blonde man walked over. He looked to be about thirty or so. Like the girl, he had blonde hair. The man looked rather muscular and fit.

"Found him, Ollie," announced Mia.

"Thanks," he said. He turned to Harry and held out a hand. "I'm Oliver Queen. Ollie or Uncle Ollie is fine with me."

Harry shook his hand. "Nice to meet you. Where are we going, anyway? Aunt Petunia's letter just said you lived in the Colonies."

"Star City, California," said Ollie.

* * *

Harry seemed like a normal enough boy. A little on the shrimpy side though. And his clothing was obviously hand-me-downs. None of them seemed to fit properly either. Ollie decided that when they got back to the states he would ask Dinah or Mia to do something about this.

The boy had messy black hair, lightly tanned skin, and eyes a rather familiar shade of green. Connor, Moira Queen, Aunt Niamh, Lily, and Ollie himself all had eyes that shade of green. A rather dominant family trait.

Ollie cleared his throat, interrupting the conversation Harry and Mia were having. "What school do you go to, anyway?"

"Hogwarts," he said cautiously. Almost as if he was afraid of what reaction Ollie could have to the name itself. "It's a very exclusive school for those with… certain talents. People are admitted based upon talent, not wealth. They don't accept applications. You have to be invited to attend the school."

"Hogwarts? Never heard of it," said Ollie.

"I doubt you would have. There's only two hundred and fifty or so students in the entire school." Harry shrugged. "It's been around for a millennia, though."

"Really? What sort of job are you thinking of getting into after you graduate. Or do you intend to go to a university?" he asked.

Harry gave him a blank look. "I haven't really thought about it. Hermione will probably want to go to a university. I think Ron is going to look for a job in the ministry after graduation. I think I might try to go into law enforcement. Join the police or something. Maybe I'll try to get into Scotland Yard."

A little bit unexpected. "Why the police?"

He looked down. "Can't really see myself doing anything else with my life. If I do apply, I'm pretty sure Ron will as well, even if it is because none of his brothers are in that line of work."

"Who are Ron and Hermione?" asked Mia.

"They're my best mates. Hermione's a real bookworm. You know the type. Both her parents are dentists," Harry explained. One look at his face confirmed his affection for these friends. "Ron is really into chess and… football. Ron has five older brothers and a younger sister. Since I started at Hogwarts, I've spent part of almost every summer with his family. They're really great. Mrs. Weasley-Ron's Mum-is the best cook around.

"Do you like football as well?" asked Ollie.

Harry nodded. "I'm on the house team." Noticing their blank look, he continued. "There are four houses at Hogwarts. They're like dorms. And the houses compete against each other. Ron and Hermione are in Gryffindor with me." Harry paused. "Mia, you never did tell me why you were with Uncle Ollie."

"He's my legal guardian, my foster father," Mia said in a low voice.

* * *

Luna Lovegood knew that others called her Looney Lovegood behind her back. Most of the time, she didn't care. Really, she didn't.

She'd tried to make friends, back in first year. But that hadn't turned out very well. Most of the other Ravenclaws decided that her belief in things that "did not exist" made her crazy at best, stupid at worst. The Slytherins made fun of her. Hufflepuffs found her to be frightening. And the Gryffindors… for all that they thought they were the best house, they were the worst.

Take Ginny, for example. Luna knew that Ginny was only friendly out of pity. That Ginny laughed about her when she was not there.

The Gryffindors were so brave and chivalrous. Absolutely ridiculous. That "bravery" was an excuse to bully other and "chivalry" was how they justified it to themselves. At least the other houses made it clear what they thought about her.

Just this once, Luna would prove that she was sane, that what she believed in was real. If only to wipe that smug look off of Hermione Granger's face.

Sure, Luna did not think that what a person believed in needed to be proved. And she had stopped caring about what the other students thought of her. But once, just this once, Luna wanted to prove Hermione Granger wrong.

* * *

Mia had seemed nice enough. A little withdrawn at times. Apparently, Uncle Ollie had a son as well, Connor. According to Mia, Connor had been left at home to take care of the Youth Center Uncle Ollie owned and ran.

For a moment Harry wondered if Aunt Petunia had known that Uncle Ollie was a multimillionaire. Probably not.

The parked behind an old brownstone. Getting out of the car, Harry handed Hedwig's cage to Mia and went to retrieve his trunk from the boot.

"Do you need any help carrying that trunk up a flight of stairs?" asked Uncle Ollie.

"I'm fine," said Harry.

Uncle Ollie nodded. "Mia, why don't you show Harry his room. By the time you finish unpacking, dinner should be ready."

The building was decorated tastefully. All good quality, but nothing overtly expensive. He was led up to the second floor. There were three doors and another staircase.

Mia pointed to the left, "That's my room. The middle room is Connor's and yours is the one on the right. Ollie left me and Connor to get furniture and stuff, she we got you a bed, a dresser and a desk. If you want, we can get some paint for the walls or some posters or something."

Harry walked into the room and stopped short. The bed, dresser and desk were made of matching wood. The bed was made with a green quilt and pale yellow sheets. The walls were a similar shade of yellow. The furniture actually looked like it was still in good condition.

"I-I like the room the way it is," Harry managed to say.

* * *

Luna hummed happily as she boarded the plane. She had to agree with her father, muggle methods of travel were ever so interesting. And riding in coach was so much fun! There were so many people nearby to study and talk to.

They would take this plane to John F. Kennedy Airport in New York and then take a plane from there to Star City. Star City was in Northern California.

She and her father could stay in a hotel and go to various State Parks in search of the Jackalope. Daddy had even given her, her very own assignment.

While he wrote about Jackalopes, she was to research an even more elusive prey: Green Arrow. There were supposedly two Green Arrows these days and a female Speedy. What a wonderful article it would be. Maybe it would even get third page!

Maybe it was a father-son team. Or perhaps there were clones. Or maybe some sort of muggle polyjuice potion was at work.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"Harry, right?" said a man who looked to be around Bill or Charlie Weasley's age. "I'm your cousin, Connor. Why don't you go help Mia set the table while I finish dinner."

Harry set to work putting the napkins and silverware out while Mia put the plates down. Most of the food brought in Connor and Uncle Ollie was unfamiliar at best. But like most teenage boys, Harry didn't particularly care what the food was so long as it was edible.

"Do you have any summer homework?" asked Uncle Ollie.

"A couple essays," said Harry.

"How are you doing in school?"

Harry gave Connor a bewildered look. He supposed this was normal familial behavior. Mrs. Weasley had always cared about her son's grades.

"Passing everything." A shrug. "Not that Hermione would let me or Ron fail anything. She always gives us day planners or books for holidays. Last year, she'd already figured out a study schedule for all of us."

"So Ron is the one you hang out with and talk sports with," Mia said in a voice Harry faintly remembered Mrs. Weasley use. "And Hermione is just a study buddy."

"Huh? You obviously haven't met Hermione before," said Harry. "I mean, I know that other than me and Ron and his family, Hermione doesn't really have any other friends, but she's not very social. She's like my sister. And even if I didn't think of her like that, she's been involved in too many of the…" Harry tried to think of a way to describe their adventures. "Rule breaking things Ron and I do together to be just some study buddy."

Harry shook his head. "When we first met Hermione, she was so annoying that neither Ron nor I wanted to be around her. And then a couple months later she took the fall for us as a thank you for helping her out. We've been friends ever since." Harry shrugged. "Anyway, Fred, George and I are sure that Ron fancies her but is too afraid to admit it."

"Fred and George?"

"Two of Ron's older brothers. They're identical twins. Real pranksters. We're on the House team together."

* * *

Luna sat off to the side, her head resting on her hands. It was so interesting to watch people go through security in an airport.

Oooh, a cavity search.

"Beeswax, we need to catch our plan now."

"Coming Daddy."

* * *

Harry sat on a chair, staring at the TV. When Mia had put the show on, he'd thought it stupid. But for some reason, he couldn't resist watching the Simpsons.

"Harry, come here."

Harry stood up and walked over to Uncle Olllie. He had wondered how long it would take for the other shoe to drop. How long it would be before he was sent to do all the chores. How long until Uncle Ollie revealed himself to be exactly like Uncle Vernon.

"Yeah?"

"You have a choice," said Uncle Ollie. "Twenty dollars a week in allowance, or a job in the Youth Center for five dollars an hour."

"What sort of job? How many hours a week? What days of the week?" Harry asked, suspicious of his motives.

"Playing with the kids, dishing out pudding. That sort of thing," he explained. "Mia isn't here on Friday afternoons and the weekend. Normally Connor and I just handle it, but I thought it might be good for you to earn your own money. Three to seven on Friday afternoons. Nine to five on Saturday and Sunday with a lunch break at twelve."

After a moment Harry nodded. "I'll do it."

"Good, you start on Friday. If you want, Mia can take you around on Thursday to show you the ropes."

* * *

The stewardess edged away from the strange and obviously colorblind blonde. Why oh why had she dropped out of college? Classes had to be better than dealing with this lunatic.

"Did you know that Crumple-Horned Snorkacks like to eat baby toenails? Most people don't. They think that the Snorkack is only attracted to the smell of dirty diapers…"

* * *

Harry sat on his bed reading his potions text. Snape had been particularly nasty in assigning essays this summer. Probably upset that Harry had survived Voldemort. Again.

While not as obsessive about homework as Hermione, Harry certainly liked it more than Ron. Summer had always been a time for him to immerse himself in his magical texts.

He had only arrived a day earlier. Hedwig probably wouldn't be here until the end of the week. Letters from Ron and Hermione would take even longer to arrive.

With a sigh, he closed the book. There had to be something interesting to do in Star City. Maybe Mia would have some ideas.

* * *

"Daddy, I'm going to look for Irtani," Luna announced once they arrived in their hotel room.

"Don't forget to be back by moonrise, beeswax."

"Yes Daddy."

* * *

"Ollie, Harry and I are heading to the park to play soccer. Football. Whatever."

"Have fun," said Ollie. He handed some money to Harry. "Here's a twenty. It'll be taken out of your first paycheck. Be back by nine. Connor and I have somewhere to be tonight, so you'll have to find your own dinner."

"No problem. We'll go out for dinner or something."

* * *

"Alastor, what's wrong?"

"I talked to Arabella. Potter isn't at Privet Drive. The Dursleys never picked him up from King's Cross."

* * *

Harry, Mia decided, was a little too well adjusted. A year and a half younger than she was, Harry was an inch taller. Despite being all skin and bones, Harry was more than capable of keeping up with her. Well, he was on a school soccer team.

No doubt he was taking it easy on her. Well, it was just a game between friends.

Out of the corner of his eye, Harry caught a glimpse of silver. He looked over. Suspicion confirmed, Harry stopped running.

The strange girl who had to be a Ravenclaw (Other than Hermione, nobody other than a Ravenclaw would read a book that thick) was in this park. The girl who had recognized Crouch for the imposter he was.

She was dancing to silent music. A waltz with an invisible partner.

She wore earrings that looked like radishes. Her wand held her long hair up in a bun. She wore a dark blue shirt and tights with an orange dress. Around her neck was that butterbeer top necklace.

"Harry?" Mia ran up to him. Seeing the girl, she said, "Why is she waltzing?"

"I'm not sure," said Harry. "But we go to school together."

"What's her name?"

"I don't know. I think she's a Ravenclaw. We spoke once in the library."

The girl looked their way, her silvery eyes meeting his. Without missing a step, she waltzed over.

"Hello Harry," she said.

"Hi… uh, I don't know your name."

"Oh, I'm Luna Lovegood."

"This is my cousin, Mia," he said. "So what are you doing in Star City?"

"Daddy's the editor of the Quibbler. We're here to do a story on the Jackalope." She smiled. "I'm supposed to do an article on Superheroes."

"Why were you waltzing?" asked Mia.

"To attract Irtani," she said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "They're magical birds attracted to dancing women, particularly princesses. Like the ones in those Disney films."

Mia and Harry shared a look.

"I think you need to sing and dance," Mia suggested. "Instead of just dancing."

"Of course!" Luna's face lit up. "How could I have forgotten?"

"Do you want to play football with us?" asked Harry. "Maybe you and Mia against me?"

"That sounds ever so fun!" said Luna. "Of course I will." She stopped. "How do you play football?"

* * *

Luna was rather nice. A little strange, though. From what Luna had said about the Quibbler, it was probably the wizarding version of a tabloid.

Harry had to admit that he was grateful for the game of football. For the tournament, he had started running on top of researching spells. What good was a spell if you didn't have the stamina to keep up the fight? Ducking and dodging had saved his life on more than one occasion when facing off against Voldemort.

When Luna joined the game, Harry had felt free to stop holding back. It was a rather well matched game at that point.

"So when does your father want you back?" Harry asked as they walked toward a pizza parlor.

"Moonrise."

Harry nodded. "After we get some food, I'll walk you back to your hotel." He looked at Mia. "That ok with you? You can come if you want. I just don't think she should walk back alone."

"I'll go with you two," said Mia. "Just incase you get lost."

Harry knew that Mia had caught what he was trying to say. He didn't want Luna walking back alone because it might be dangerous. Neither he nor Luna knew the neighborhood well enough to stay away from the bad parts.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

War was coming. Harry was sure of it. It would only be a matter of time before the Death Eaters began their attacks once more. He would need to train. To learn how to fight. And so would his friends.

Harry had already thought out a schedule. Homework after dinner, and once his homework was done, studying. Exercise before breakfast. Spend part of the day with Luna, Mia, or whoever else was around. Didn't want anybody to get too suspicious of his actions. The rest of his free time was to be used learning what magic he could.

Forty-seven. Up… down forty-eight. Up… down forty-nine. Up… down fifty. Doing pushups was harder than he'd thought it would be. Without giving himself a chance to rest, Harry rolled onto his back and began doing sit-ups.

Luckily, Luna would be gone until Sunday evening. She and her father were going to a state park to search for Jackalopes. After the football game and pizza, Harry, Mia and Luna had agreed to go to the cinema after Mia got off work on Monday. Harry was going to meet Luna a couple hours earlier for studying. Well, that's what he'd told the girls. Harry was really going to ask Luna about how she'd known about Crouch.

Putting on his old trainers and a watch that had seen better days, Harry headed downstairs. There was still some time until breakfast and he wanted to go for a run.

"Hi, Uncle Ollie," Harry said. "Just waking up?"

"Just got in," said Uncle Ollie. "What are you doing up at this hour?"

"Morning exercise. I let myself sleep in yesterday, but I need to get back to training. My teammates will be pissed if I get out of shape this summer. When's breakfast?"

"In an hour and a half."

"Good. I'm going for a run."

* * *

A rather sweaty and smelly Harry walked back into the brownstone a minute or two before Ollie had sat breakfast would be served. He wordlessly grabbed some bacon and eggs.

"How was the run?" asked Connor.

"Good," shrugged Harry. "I think I should get up an hour or so earlier so that I have more time to exercise before breakfast, though."

"What type of exercises have you been doing?"

"We only really run for football, so that along with fifty pushups and fifty sit-ups. After I get the pushups and sit-ups down, I'm not really sure what else I'll be doing."

Connor nodded. "If you want, I could help you with some weight lifting."

"Thanks." After eating a couple more bites of food, Harry asked, "Do any of you know anything about fighting?"

"Why do you want to know?" asked Uncle Ollie.

He couldn't tell them that he wanted to learn so that he had some way to defend himself if disarmed. Something else. Anything else.

"Dudley was the champion boxer of his weight class," Harry said quickly. "We only really have football at school. There's no way to learn self defense. And Malfoy's goons are a lot bigger than me and Ron."

"Who's Malfoy and why does he have goons?"

"School bully. I mean, I could take Malfoy, but Crabbe and Goyle are three times my size and all muscle." Best explanation he could think of. Better expand on it. "Malfoy and I get into at least one fight a year. He calls Hermione rather horrible names, insults Ron because he's poor, and the things he says about my mother… And if there aren't any teachers about, Malfoy has no problem attacking people who stand no chance against him. The things he's done to some of the first years… And I know he's tried to corner Hermione on more than one occasion. The same with Ron and I."

"If you can get up at four thirty, we can do some weight training before your usual morning exercises and after dinner I'll start teaching you Aikido," said Connor.

"Thanks. What's Aikido?"

* * *

Remus Lupin did not like Petunia Dursley. He never had. The way that woman had treated Lily was abominable. And doubtless she had treated Harry much the same. Remus would gladly have taken Harry in, but as a werewolf he was not allowed to care for a child. And according to Dumbledore, the blood wards around Harry's home would not allow him to even walk down Privet Drive. Left with little choice, Remus had not seen Harry again until he was a third year.

Trying to restrain himself from attacking the residents of number four Privet Drive, Remus knocked on the door. After a moment, the door opened to reveal Petunia.

"I have nothing to do with your sort. Leave, now."

"I can't do that, Petunia," said Remus. "Not until you tell me where Harry is."

"His new legal guardian is a cousin of mine," said Petunia. "Dumbledore's precious blood wards won't be affected. My mother and his mother were sisters. The boy is still protected."

With that, Petunia slammed the door in Remus's face.

* * *

Mr. Lovegood watched his daughter play in the forest. Luna was more like her mother than him. Always believing in things impossible to prove. She even resembled her mother. In coloring at least. Her facial features were more like his mother's.

For a moment Mr. Lovegood let himself think about his mother. Then his thoughts turned to his father. And Mr. Lovegood wondered if his father would be proud of him.

His father had no idea that the magical world existed. No idea that Mr. Lovegood was a muggleborn wizard. And no idea if his son was still alive or not.

After graduating from Hogwarts in 1962, Mr. Lovegood had joined the Department of Mysteries. It was there that he had met Selene Lovegood. A brilliant scientist, Selene had been the love of his life.

When married, Mr. Lovegood had taken her name, leaving his last tie to the muggle worls behind. He'd had no other choice. His father had far too many enemies who would have connected Mr. Lovegood to his father.

After sixteen years of marriage, the Lovegoods had been blessed with one child. A daughter whose birth had rendered her mother unable to ever bare a child again. It was not Luna's fault. Death Eaters had tried to torture Selene for information on the Department of Mysteries. A combination of the torture and the difficult birth were what had caused the injuries to Selene's uterus.

Selene had died a rather horrible death as a result of a botched spell when Luna was nine. Having witnessed her own mother's death, Luna had retreated into herself. Mr. Lovegood had decided to leave field work so that he could spend more time caring for his daughter. He had been transferred to Information.

The Quibbler was not what it seemed. Although Luna did not know it, the Quibbler was a way to get information to the Department of Mysteries field agents. Inside many of the articles were coded messages.

On occasion, Mr. Lovegood would do modified fieldwork. Something safe but essential that he could take his daughter on as well. Like this Jackalope mission. The Green Arrow article was something for Luna to work on while he did the more dangerous parts of the mission.

* * *

Two men stood on a rooftop, taking a break from crime fighting. Both went by Green Arrow. One the father, the other the son.

"How did the training session go with Harry?"

"The boy is good, for a street fighter with no previous training," said the younger. "He's been taken in for fighting with some of the local gangs, right?"

"According to his record, yes."

"I'll say this for him, he's really determined." The younger paused for a moment. "When are we going to tell him? About our… night jobs, that is."

"We'll give it a couple days more."

* * *

Hedwig would soon arrive. Best to write letters for everyone while he had the chance. His first day of work had been exhausting, but nothing he couldn't deal with. The kids reminded him of himself and his childhood, though.

His first letter was for Sirius. Talking about his family and mentioning that as muggles, they probably wouldn't know how to identify an animagus. Then he added in, to feel free to visit as Snuffles anytime he wanted. Next was a letter for Ron outlining his new home without going into detail or names and mentioning that he would be in Diagon Alley August 31. His letter to Hermione mentioned much the same as the one to Ron, with the addition of his job in a youth center.

He reread each letter to make sure that, if intercepted, Death Eaters would be unable to locate him. First names only in his letter to Sirius. No names in the other letters. No mention of the country or anything else that would indicate a location. Good.

* * *

"A cousin? Petunia sent Harry to live with a cousin?" Sirius was beyond furious. "Did she even bother to do any research on this man other than his relation to her? No, probably not. Is he a muggle or a wizard?"

"Muggle, Padfoot," sighed Remus. "You know just as well as I do that Lily would have mentioned any relatives with magical abilities. Until we locate this cousin, we can only hope that whoever this cousin is, he's a better person than Petunia."

* * *

"Do you have any envelopes I can use?"

"Sure, how many do you need?" said Ollie.

"Three for right now," said Harry, some paper in his hand. "I don't need stamps or anything, I can handle that."

"Who are you writing to?" Ollie retrieved a handful of envelopes from a drawer.

"Ron, Hermione, and my Godfather," he said without hesitation.

"Godfather? I didn't know you had a Godfather." Ollie paused. "Shouldn't you have-"

Before Ollie could finish his sentence, Harry said, "He got out of jail two years ago. Do you really think they'd allow a teenager to live with somebody who went to jail for murder?"

Without waiting for his reply, Harry took the envelopes and left the room.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

A snowy owl flew through the sky. It had taken her nearly a week, but she would soon be back with her master. Harry-Wizard-Chick really was a very kind master. Much more affectionate than any of her previous masters.

The owl glided through a city on an island, following her Harry-Wizard-Chick's aura. She came upon a large stone building. She landed on the windowsill of the stone building's Food Place. Harry-Wizard-Chick would soon come to this place. He always came to the Food Place.

* * *

Harry stumbled into the kitchen. Training with Connor was exhausting. At least he wouldn't need to worry about being taught Aikido until this evening after going to the cinema with Luna and Mia.

Wait-had he told Connor? No. Better do so now.

"Connor, I wont be back until nine or ten tonight," said Harry.

"What are you doing?" asked Connor.

"Luna, Mia and I are going to the cinema," he explained. "What film are we seeing anyway?"

"Empire Records," Mia said without looking up from her cereal.

"Who's Luna?"

"A classmate," explained Harry. "She's a Ravenclaw a year bellow me. We met up with her in the park last week. She and her father are in Star for the summer and since she doesn't really know anybody in the country… Well, I mean, she sort of knows me. But we'd only spoken once before last week. Actually, Luna and I are meeting up at two to do some studying and our homework."

Ollie began to smirk. "Studying, huh?"

"What are you-" Realizing exactly what Uncle Ollie was suggesting, Harry shook his head. "It's not like that! I fancy Cho, not Luna! I mean, sure, Luna is a good looking bird and she's very sweet, but she's a nutter. "

"I'm with Harry on that one," added Mia. "That girl has the strangest beliefs."

"And Cho is?"

Harry blushed bright red. "Cho is a girl a year ahead of me. In Ravenclaw like Luna. She's on the House football team-same position as me. She's really pretty."

"Do you need any help figuring out how to ask Cho out?"

Harry sighed and shook his head. "Cho and I will never… I asked her out to the Yule Ball last Christman, but she had already agreed to go with Cedric. And then Cho and Cedric started dating. And then Cedric… Cho and I will never be together."

As if sensing there was something more to what Harry had said, Connor asked, "Harry, what did Cedric do?"

Harry gave Connor a long, hard look. "Cedric didn't do anything, I was the one who got him killed."

Before anybody could stop him, Harry had left the brownstone, grabbing his bag on the way.

* * *

The snowy owl sensed her Harry-Wizard-Chick's movement, and then distress. Harry-Wizard-Chick needed her. Without a second though, the owl flew off toward her master.

* * *

How could he have told them about Cedric? How could he be so stupid? Because he didn't think. He didn't think and now his family knew more than they should.

He reached the park a couple minutes after storming out of the brownstone. Unwilling to talk to anybody, Harry climbed up into a tree. He had just settled into a comfortable position, when a snowy owl landed.

"Hello Hedwig," Harry said softly.

He took a piece of the sandwich he had packed for himself and fed it to the owl. Hedwig hopped onto his shoulder. Without a second thought, Harry began to pet her.

"I did something really stupid," Harry said. He began to explain to Hedwig. His first friend, his familiar. Hedwig was always there when Harry needed her.

* * *

"Daddy."

"Yes beeswax?"

"I need to go now."

"I thought you weren't meeting that boy from school until two."

"Plans have changed."

"Go enjoy yourself, beeswax. But if that boy does anything…"

"You'll rip out his intestines through his nostrils. Don't worry, Daddy. I'll be fine."

* * *

Half laying on the branch, Harry tried to decide what to do. Finally, he pulled the letters out of the bag. Might as well send them off now.

"Hedwig, are you alright with delivering some letters? Do you need more rest?"

The owl hooted. She then picked up one of the letters in her beak.

Harry nodded and started tying letters. "This is for Sirius, give him his letter first. This is for Ron. Give him his letter second. And this is for Hermione. Giver her the letter and then spend the night there. If Hermione doesn't have a letter by morning, come back here."

Hedwig gave a hoot and then flew off.

* * *

"Don't go after him. Wait until he's calmed down," said Ollie.

"Did he really just say that he…"

"Yeah," said Connor. "Although what exactly happened… I think we need to know what happened and how Cedric died."

"I guess I can meet up with him for that movie like we said we would," Mia said after a moment. "Even if Harry doesn't show, Luna might. That girl is… half the time we were with her, I had the feeling she was just waiting for one of us to hurt her. I can't just not show up."

* * *

"Have you decided to live in a tree?"

Harry looked down from his perch. Luna Lovegood was standing at the base of the tree looking up at him.

"No," he said petulantly.

Without saying anything, Luna began to climb the tree. She settled herself across from Harry so that they were facing each other.

"Well?"

"Huh?"

"I thought we were going to study."

Harry blinked at the blonde, trying to work out a response. Finally he said, "How did you know Crouch was using polyjouice potion to take Professor Moody's place?"

Luna looked at him with her silvery, unblinking eyes as if she did not understand him. Finally she managed to work out a response. "I saw it. It was very obvious, you know."

With a sigh, Harry realized that Luna was not going to give him a good answer to the question. "So, what electives are you taking?"

"Divination, Arithmancy, and Care of Magical Creatures," she said.

"Maybe we should work on Potions first…"

* * *

It was nearly seven when Harry and Luna stopped their schoolwork. Both had completed their Potions and Transfiguration essays.

"Luna, what's the Statute of Secrecy like in the Colonies?" Harry asked.

"No Muggle baiting, nothing criminal, and don't tell the muggles about the magical world," said Luna. "You are allowed to use magic within those restrictions. No magic out of school until you have completed your OWLs, are of age or are in danger."

"Self defense is allowed?"

Luna nodded. "Of course it is."

Harry glanced at his watch and then said, "Let's go get some dinner before we see that film." He wasn't sure if Mia was still coming. "Mia said she'd meet us at the theater at eight."

* * *

Mia walked to the theater deep in thought. Had Harry been there when Cedric was killed? Did Harry kill Cedric himself? Why did Harry blame himself for this person's death?

With a sigh of relief, Mia saw Harry and Luna in the line. Seeing her, Harry waved. He looked happy enough, but his eyes… Mia had seen eyes like that on many occasions. On her peers back when she lived on the streets. On the criminals she helped catch as Speedy. On her teammates in the Teen Titans. On Ollie and Connor.

The eyes of somebody who had seen too much. Done too much. Why hadn't she seen it before? Was he that good at pretending he was a happy, normal teenager? Obviously Harry was that good at pretending. But to be able to lie with his eyes…

* * *

Harry knew that Mia wanted to ask him about Cedric. Something he was unwilling to talk about in front of Luna. Sure, Luna was friendly, but she wasn't Ron or Hermione. This just wasn't something he could talk about to some girl he'd only really met three times.

He had walked Luna back to her hotel and arranged to have another study session with her the next day. He could only hope that he'd still have a place to stay the next morning.

But what to tell Mia, Connor, and Uncle Ollie? He couldn't really explain what had happened to Cedric without talking about Voldemort. And if he said something about Voldemort he would need to explain what had happened to his parents.

Damn. At this rate he was going to need to explain the entire magical world to them.

Maybe there was a way to tell the story without getting into magic. He just needed to find Muggle ways to talk about everything.


	6. Chapter 6

Authors Note: Sorry, I just realized that I messed up Mr. Lovegood's age. He was supposed to have graduated from Hogwarts in 1972 and have been married to Selene six years before Luna was born.

Chapter 6

Harry chose the seat that was as far away as possible from the others, but still close to the door. Out of reach just in case he had to make a quick getaway.

Hopefully he wouldn't need to, but one could never be too careful. He was just grateful he'd worked out a way to explain Voldemort to Muggles without mentioning magic. What he'd managed on Sirius was a little… questionable, but it should work.

"I guess I should start out by explaining who Tom Riddle is," Harry said softly. "Riddle is the leader of a criminal organization. I'm not sure why, but when I was a baby, he decided to kill my parents. I think it may have been because Dad was a cop.

"My father had three really good friends, Remus, Sirius, and Peter. When my parents went into hiding, they only told one person where they were going in case of an emergency. They thought that Remus might be feeding information to Riddle, and Sirius was too obvious because he was Dad's partner, so they told Peter. But Peter was the one who worked for Riddle.

"Peter betrayed my parents, framed Sirius for the murder of thirteen people, and went into hiding. I was sent to live with Aunt Petunia. When I was thirteen, Sirius broke out of jail. You probably remember that, it was all over the news," Harry paused, gathering himself. "After Sirius proved to me and Remus that Peter was still alive and that Peter had betrayed Mum and Dad, my friends and I helped him go into hiding.

"Peter managed to escape us and go crawling back to Riddle." Harry tensed. This would be the most difficult part to tell. "About two weeks ago Riddle kidnapped me and Cedric Diggory. He wanted me, not Cedric, so Riddle ordered Peter to kill Cedric." Without realizing it, Harry had wrapped his arms around his legs. "I escaped."

"Is that why you want to learn how to fight?" Connor asked. "Because this man tried to kill you?"

"Next time I meet Riddle, I'm not going to duck and hide and hope he doesn't kill me," Harry spit out.

"Next time? Do you really think he would-" Uncle Ollie started to say.

Harry stood. "Next time? There's always a next time! Riddle tried to have me killed when I was an infant. He tried to kill me when I was eleven. He tried to kill me when I was twelve. This is only the most recent attempt." Harry shook his head. "He wants to kill me and I'm not going to let my friends get murdered just because of who they hang out with!"

"Whoa, slow down," said Uncle Ollie. "What's this about him trying to kill you when you were eleven and twelve?"

Harry flopped back into the chair, his anger gone. In a hollow sort of voice, he said, "One of my teachers, Professor Quirrell was one of Riddle's minions. At the end of my first year at Hogwarts I was cornered with Quirrell and after I refused to work for Riddle Quirrell tried to kill me. I don't remember much of it, but I-I killed him."

Harry closed his eyes. "They didn't even suggest pressing charges. And at the end of second year, Ron's younger sister, Ginny, was kidnapped Tom Riddle jr. Ron and I went after her because it didn't look like anybody else was doing much of anything. There was a cave-in and Ron and I were separated. I found Ginny and Tom and I fought. I was poisoned and I thought I was going to die and I just stabbed him. Except I got the antidote before it was too late. They didn't press charges for that one either."

"Harry-"

"I need to continue to learn how to fight. Malfoy's father is in Riddle's inner circle."

"What about transferring-"

Harry glared at Uncle Ollie. "There is no way in hell I'm leaving my friends to the likes of Malfoy or Nott. Try to pull me out and I'll leave. I have places I can go to."

* * *

"Daddy, I finished my article on Green Arrow."

"Good job, beeswax."

Mr. Lovegood took the article from Luna. He read through it, wondering what his daughter had written about when she hadn't even done any research. It didn't really matter what the article said. It was just filler, but it was an article his daughter had written.

The article started out by explaining that Green Arrow had become a Superhero after being stranded on an island. Mentioned that the original Speedy (now known as Arsenal) had been Green Arrow's ward and son in all but blood and name. It then went on to talk about the second Green Arrow, the illegitimate son of the original who had spent several years in an ashram in Tibet. The second Speedy was mentioned as the foster daughter of the original Green Arrow. Lastly, Black Canary was mentioned as the on again off again girlfriend of the original Green Arrow.

After that initial information, the article talked about some of the more obscure times members of the "Arrow Family" had saved the world, dimension, galaxy, etc. This was followed by several paragraphs on the newest member of the "Arrow Family".

It was at that point that Mr. Lovegood began to wonder where Luna had gotten her information from. Up until this speculation on a new member of the "Arrow Family", her information had been amazingly accurate.

Then Luna had gone off on one of her usual tangents. According to this article, before the summer was out, there would be another archer in Star City. A boy a year younger than the current Speedy. Even more oddly, Luna had mentioned a codename for this boy and said that it was used with permission from Arsenal's daughter, who would use the same codename in decades to come.

"Beeswax, where did you get this information on the new superhero?"

Luna gave him one of her blank stares that usually meant she had been asked a question with an amazingly obvious answer. "I saw it. Do you think we'll find a jackalope soon? When we find one, can I keep it as a pet?"

Mr. Lovegood couldn't help but blink at his daughter. "Of course you can have a jackalope as a pet. But you need to remember to feed it."

"Did you like my article?"

"Of course I did, beeswax. It's going to be in the third page of the next issue of the Quibbler." Thinking desperately of something else for Luna to write, he said, "For your next article, why don't you write about Green Lantern. Actually, why don't you write an article for each issue about a superhero of your choice. Your very own column. Any idea on what to call it?"

"'Mystery men of the week,'" Luna said, her eyes lighting up. "I can talk about a different Superhero each week and then I can talk about what major crimes the Superheroes have prevented or solved during the week."

"Perfect, beeswax."

He had little doubt that his superiors would approve. The articles about superheroes would only prove to make the Quibbler look more ridiculous. The Daily Prophet was still denying the existence of the so-called mystery men from the 1940s. Among normal wizarding society, superheroes were rumors and tall tales. And they were never spoken about in polite society.

* * *

Once Harry had calmed down, Ollie said, "Harry, we haven't been exactly truthful with you. We didn't know you well enough to trust you with this information when you first arrived."

Harry gave him a suspicious look. "What? Are you a criminal as well?"

"More like vigilante," said Mia.

"I'm Green Arrow," said Ollie. "Mia is Speedy, and Connor goes by Green Arrow as well."

Harry gave him an unreadable look. "That explains a lot. So when you guys disappear at night, you're out fighting crime. And Mia spends the weekends with the Teen Titans."

"You believe me?"

"I'm not sure yet. Maybe," said Harry. "I need some time to think about it and proof."

"You're taking this rather calmly," said Mia.

"I've seen pictures of Green Arrow in the paper," Harry said softly. "That mask doesn't hide your face all that well. And I've seen too many weird things over the years." He paused. "You guys are archers, right? Can you teach me archery as well? Do you know somebody who knows how to use a sword? I'd like to learn how to use that as well. Do you know somebody who'd be willing to teach me how to use a gun?"

* * *

Harry waited in the park for Luna, his mind still going over what Uncle Ollie had said. Since coming to Star City, he had kept up with the news. While he preferred to watch the BBC for any signs of Death Eater activity, he also made sure to pay attention to local news, just incase Death Eaters showed up.

He had seen pictures of Green Arrow and some pictures of Speedy with the Teen Titans in the news. It was rather likely that Green Arrow was Uncle Ollie. They bore a striking resemblance to each other. And that picture of Speedy did look like Mia, sort of. The hood hid a lot.

Maybe there was a spell or something. Or he could try to brew Veritaserum and attempt to question them without them knowing what he had done. No, he couldn't do that unless he wanted them to know that he had magical powers.

Harry sat on a picnic table reading the newspaper. Same old same old. A couple crimes. A couple of people saved by one of the "Arrow Family." Nothing out of the ordinary.

"They're not lying."

"Gah!"

Harry wobbled from side to side, then fell off the table. Wand in hand, newspaper on his head, he opened his eyes.

In front of his eyes were two black Mary Janes covering purple stockings with yellow spots. Harry's eyes trailed up the legs to a gray skirt, pink blouse and then rather familiar silvery eyes.

"Who's not lying, Luna?"

"I don't know," she said. "I just thought I should tell you. Herbology and Charms today?"

"Sure."

* * *

"So is this a break between searches for Jackalopes?" asked Harry. "Or are you and your father doing more research so next time you go out you'll have a better idea of where to look?"

Luna shrugged. "I don't know. When we go on these trips, Daddy does things in town and tells me to spend the day outside."

"Really?" Harry closed his book. "What does your mother say about this?"

"Mummy died," Luna said softly. "Five years ago. She liked experimenting and one of her spells went wrong."

"I-I" What could he say to that? Some sort of hollow apology for the death of somebody he'd never even met before? No, he wouldn't do that.

"How do you kill devils snare?" Luna asked.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

"Well, at least he's not asking to where a mask," said Connor.

"Were you paying attention to what Harry asked to learn?" said Ollie. "It's only a matter of time. Although which side he's on…"

"Didn't you say something about calling up Dinah and having her take Harry shopping for clothing that actually fits?"

"I'd forgotten about that. Maybe I'll have Roy over too. Talk to him about teaching Harry to use a gun."

"Why?"

"That boy has killed twice before without a gun, and admitted it. If we don't teach him, he'll find somebody else to teach him. At least this way we'll be able to make sure he learns right."

* * *

The boy moved well. Seemed to prefer ducking and dodging to hitting, but that wasn't so bad. He learned fast. According to Connor, the boy had only been learning a week. To have learned that much with no previous training… the boy had potential.

""Why do you want to learn how to use a gun?"

Both Connor and the boy stopped. The boy looked at him with dead eyes. "I want to know everything I can learn. I need to know."

* * *

Roy Harper was… interesting, to say the least. Uncle Ollie's first foster child and original sidekick. The man was a lot like Bill Weasley with some of the Twins and Charlie mixed in for good measure. Roy was a superhero by the name of Arsenal. A weapons expert, apparently

His daughter Lian was absolutely adorable, though. The girl had to be about five or six. She looked almost nothing like Roy--according to Connor, Lian resembled her assassin mother. Assassin mother? He was really beginning to wonder what type of people he was related to.

Dinah Lance, Uncle Ollie's girlfriend, had arrived not long after Roy. The blonde woman had taken one look at him and then smacked Uncle Ollie upside the head.

* * *

"Daddy, can I have some extra money?"

"Why beeswax?"

"I'm going shopping today."

* * *

Dinah had to admit that Harry bore a striking resemblance to Ollie. Same eye color, same chin, similar cheekbones. At first she had thought that he was yet another of Ollie's illegitimate children.

An orphan cousin with a crime boss after him was not quite what she had expected. She could only wonder how long it would be before Harry was running around in tights saving Star City.

"Harry, when was the last time you got new glasses?" asked Dinah.

He gave her a bewildered look. "Uh… a couple years ago, I think."

"Another thing for us to get while we're out," Dinah said to herself.

"Out? Where are we going?"

"Mia and I are taking you shopping for new clothing," said Dinah. Hadn't Ollie told him?

"I can't do that today," said Harry. "Luna and I were going to study together. She's probably left her hotel room already. I can't just leave her waiting for me."

"I'm sure Luna will want to come with us," said Mia. "So long as we don't let her pick out actual clothing."

"Mia," said Harry.

"I have yet to see Luna wear anything that matched," Mia pointed out. "She seems to think that wearing opposite colors together is the way to go."

"I think she looks fine."

Mia rolled her eyes. "That's because you're a guy."

"Luna is?" said Dinah.

"Harry's friend from school, who happens to be a girl," said Ollie. "She is, according to Harry pretty and sweet, but not the girl he fancies."

* * *

Dinah was not quite sure what to make of Luna. The girl was… strange, at best. Judging by the way Harry and Mia acted around her, the behavior was normal.

"I think he should wear this," said Luna.

In her hands was a long sleeve shirt with the words: "Your village called, their idiot is missing."

"I don't think Malfoy would understand if I pointed to the shirt whenever he was around. He's not too bright, you know."

Luna let out a loud laugh with a snort thrown in for good measure. Once calmed down, Luna began to search again. After a couple minutes she came up with another shirt.

"This I like," said Harry.

On it were the words: "Novelty t-shirts suck (so does irony)."

"Make sure you remove the stickers and throw them out as soon as you get home," said Luna. "Birnatis like to eat them."

"What's a Birnati?" asked Dinah.

Luna gave her a dreamy sort of smile. "They're the size of your thumb and they have wings. They eat plastic with sticky stuff on the back and if you're not careful, they'll eat your clothing as well."

"Let's go find you some more jeans," said Dinah.

* * *

Harry had quickly come to the conclusion that shopping was horrible. Well, when he was shopping with women at any rate. They made him try on every single item of clothing then debated what colors would look best on him. At this rate, he would never leave the mall.

Harry let out a sigh as they entered yet another store. This was going to be a long day. At least he had work tomorrow. Something to look forward to after this torture.

* * *

Sirius blinked at the arrival of a snowy owl. Hedwig? Yes, it was Hedwig. Sirius took the letter from the leg she had stuck out. Before he could say anything, the bird had flown off.

* * *

"Can we stop at a fabric store before dinner?" asked Luna. Dinah had invited her for dinner. "I need to get something."

"A fabric store? You know how to sew?" said Mia.

Harry knew that the wizarding world was around sixty or seventy years behind the Muggle world. While there were quite a few witches in the workplace, most were still housewives. Undoubtedly, Luna had been taught everything a "good housewife" should know. According to Fred and George, while the boys were being taught sexual education, the girls were taught household skills and how to care for a child.

"Of course I know how to sew. Don't you know how?" Luna said with that all to familiar look that said she had been asked something incredibly obvious.

"I can mend clothing," said Mia. "I couldn't make an entire dress or something, though."

"What type of cloth do you need?" asked Dinah.

"Wool, linen and cotton," she said. "I can dye the cloth myself. Some full grain leather, brain tanned leather, and sheepskin as well."

"Luna, are you planning on making a wardrobe for yourself?" asked Harry. It wasn't that odd an idea. Many witches who knew how to sew made their own robes.

She blinked at him. "No, I'm making clothing for somebody. Alright, three dresses for myself as well. But it's a surprise. You can't tell anybody."

"What's full grain leather?" asked Mia. "And for that matter, what's brain tanned leather?"

"Full grained leather is used for boots and furniture," Luna explained. "Brain tanned leather is water absorbent, soft, and can be washed."

"Are you sure you have enough money for this?" asked Harry.

"Daddy gave me money for shopping earlier today."

* * *

Visit as Snuffles? That was a good idea. If these Muggles had no idea about magic, they would have no reason to suspect a large black dog. And it would be a perfect way to get out of Grimmauld Place. Even if it was just for a couple days.

* * *

"Hello Hedwig," said Hermione. "You have a letter from Harry? Oh, here's an owl treat."

Hermione,

Just wanted to say hello. Aunt Petunia sent me to live with relatives from my mother's side of the family. They seem alright. My uncle has a son about Bill's age and a foster daughter about your age.

I'm going to be in Diagon Alley on August 31, do you want to meet me then? You could meet my cousins as well. I just got a job. At a youth center. They pay minimun wage, but that's not so bad. I told Hedwig to stay the night incase you wanted to write a letter.

Harry

* * *

Mr. Lovegood couldn't help but wonder what Luna would do with that much cloth. Somehow, she had managed to set up a dyeing vat for the cloth. There were yards of cloth set out to dry in various shades of red and brown.

"What are you doing?" asked Mr. Lovegood.

"Dyeing cloth," she stated. "Then I'm going to start dyeing the leather."

"Beeswax, why are you dyeing cloth?"

"Because it's easier to dye it myself. This way I know it all matches."

"But why do you want cloth that matches?"

Luna tilted her head to the side. Then, as if speaking to a child, she said, "Because the uniform needs to look the same so that people recognize him."

"What uniform and who is this man?"

"I can't tell you that, Daddy," said Luna, a smile on her face. "He doesn't know he'll need a uniform yet. But all Superheroes need one."

Mr. Lovegood closed his eyes, feeling a headache coming on. He'd tried so hard to keep his daughter away from this sort of thing. Somehow she had gotten herself mixed up with Superheroes, and he was not going to stop her.

He may have chosen to ignore his Muggle heritage, but Luna had not. He had no intention to take it away from her. Not if she really wanted to get involved. It was her right.

After all, his father used to run around in tights saving the world. Actually, Mr. Lovegood was sure that his father still did save the world on a regular basis. Who was he to stop his daughter from following in her grandfather's footsteps?


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

"Harry Potter is missing-"

"Actually, he's been found," said Sirius. Ignoring the way the rest of the Order of the Phoenix looked at him, Sirius continued. "Hedwig delivered a letter from Harry last night."

"Ron received a letter from Harry last night as well," said Molly Weasley.

"Where is he?" asked Dumbledore, looking rather relieved.

"Staying with a cousin," explained Sirius. "According to Harry, Petunia transferred guardianship to her first cousin, Oliver. Oliver picked Harry up from King's Cross and took him to his home."

"What is this family of his like?" asked Molly, still looking worried about what conditions Harry could be living in.

"Oliver is independently wealthy and lives with his son, Connor and foster daughter, Mia," explained Sirius. "All three of them are Muggles. Oliver owns and runs a Youth Center for the city's underprivileged children. Harry works at the Youth Center during the weekend. Mia, Connor, and Oliver work there as well."

"Does he like it there? Is he getting enough to eat?"

"He said he does," said Sirius. "He also mentioned that I could visit as Snuffles and nobody would be able to recognize me for what I was."

"But it's too dan-"

"I don't care how dangerous it is. I'm visiting Harry next week."

"Sirius." Dumbledore looked stricter than he had ever seen him before. "The risk is-"

"I don't care what the risk is," growled Sirius. "I'm going to go and make sure that Harry is being treated right. There's nothing you can do to change my mind."

* * *

Harry handed Lian a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Dinah and Uncle Ollie were out doing something. Roy and Connor were talking shop and Mia had headed to Titan's Tower early.

"Do you have a secret idety like Daddy?" asked Lian, stumbling over the word identity.

Harry laughed. "I am Harry Potter the-boy-who-outsmarted-Moldywoldy, defeater of giant snakes, evil reincarnation of the Energizer Bunny, hunter of despicable and traitorous rats, destroyer of possessed diaries, defeater of Hungarian Horntail Dragons, son of a Marauder, and rescuer of damsels in distress extraordinaire."

"Tha's too long," said Lian. "Needs to be short."

"Well what would you call yourself if you had a secret identity?"

"Redhood," she said proudly. "I wanna be Redhood. Daddy promised I could fight crime when I was Auntie Mia's age."

"Like little red riding hood?"

"But a better fighter," nodded Lian.

"I like it," said Harry.

"You can use it," said Lian.

"But it's your codename," said Harry. "I couldn't take it away from you after you spent all that time working on it."

"But I can't fight crime until I'm fifteen," said Lian. "You can use name. I can be your sidekick!"

Harry sighed. "Alright. If I ever need a secret identity, I'll use Redhood as my codename. And if-now this is a very big if-if you still want to be my sidekick when you're fifteen and your father approves, then you can be."

"Are you going to marry her?"

"Who?" asked Harry, rather alarmed by a question with the word marry in it.

"The damsel you rescued."

"If I were to do that, I'd need three wives, and polygamy isn't legal," Harry laughed, relieved. "Anyway, Hermione is like my sister and Ron would be very upset with me if I married the bird he fancied. Gabrielle is only three years older than you and we don't even speak the same language. As for Ginny, I don't think I would want to marry a girl who looked like my mother. And even if she didn't look like my mother, Ginny loves me for what I am, not who I am."

* * *

Dinah stood behind the wall, listening to Harry's conversation with Lian. She had known it would only be a matter of time before Harry ended up in a uniform fighting crime. According to Ollie, Harry wanted to become a cop. Considering how young he was and how far off that goal was, it was entirely possible that Harry would become a Superhero just to do something.

Son of a Marauder? What did that mean? Maybe she should ask Ollie. He would probably know.

Rescuing damsels in distress? She faintly remembered hearing about Hermione, one of Harry's closer friend. But who were Gabrielle and Ginny?

* * *

"What were you able to get on Riddle?" asked Ollie.

"Just enough to make any sane person think to move out of Europe," said Roy. "Tom Marvolo Riddle is credited with the deaths of two hundred and ninety three people and his organization is credited with multiple terrorist actions during the seventies and early eighties that resulted in the deaths of well over two thousand. Many of their victims were tortured to death or insanity."

"The Potter family-did he kill them?"

"Halloween, 1981, Tom Riddle murdered James and Lily Potter," Roy paused. "Supposedly he died, but there was no body found. There have been recent rumors that he's back."

"And is Harry right in thinking that Riddle wants him dead?"

"Yeah, he is." With a sigh, Roy sat down. "Every one of my contacts said that if Riddle was back, the first person on his hit list would be Harry Potter. All of my contacts agreed that it was 'best to let the Potter brat take care of Riddle.'"

"Whoa. What?"

"I said the same thing. Nobody would tell me anything more than that about why Harry should be the one to take on Riddle."

* * *

Playing football with the kids at the youth center, his mind couldn't help but wander back to Lian's offer. What would it be like to fight crime like that? To be able to defeat your enemies without having people come to you for interviews. Oh sure, those reporters would probably want to talk to your masked identity, but there were ways to avoid being caught.

What would it be like to fight Voldemort or his followers and have the credit go to Redhood, not Harry Potter? He would still need to fight regular crime, like what his family does. An opportunity to protect his friends without having them put in danger by his actions.

But his enemies would go after Redhood. They would try to find out his identity. There were ways around that. He was sure that Hermione would be able to think of some things. Maybe Luna, as well.

* * *

"Daddy."

"Yes beeswax?"

"Could you put some spells on these for me?"

"Why? Beeswax, did you make this all by yourself?"

"Yes Daddy."

"It's really good. Are you sure it will fit? What sort of spells do you want on this?"

* * *

"Harry? Something on your mind?"

Harry flopped down on a bench in the training room. He and Connor had just finished sparing. Well, technically, it was more like Connor handing him his ass in various ways.

"Would Uncle Ollie be upset if I ended up in your line of work?" asked Harry. "I mean, I wouldn't do anything until I was much better at fighting, but…"

"I don't think he would be upset so long as both he and I agree that you're good enough to go and fight criminals," said Connor. "How long have you been thinking about this?"

"Not very long. I have a codename, though. Redhood."

* * *

A large, grim like black dog trotted down the street. It was early Monday morning, around ten. Well, early for the big black dog, at any rate.

As he reached the brownstone, a boy stepped out. "Snuffles? Is that you?"

The dog barked.

"Why don't you come with me," said the boy. "We'll have a couple minutes to play before Luna shows up."

Harry led the dog to a part of the park rich with foliage. He hadn't quite expected Sirius to show up so soon. As soon as Sirius turned back into a human, Harry hugged him.

"I missed you, Sirius," said Harry. "How did you find me?"

"You only have one cousin named Oliver," said Sirius. "Are they treating you alright. If they're not I can-"

"They're treating me just fine," said Harry. "It's kind of like staying with the Weasleys except without Mrs. Weasley trying to mother me. Uncle Ollie is great, Connor is cool-he's teaching me how to fight, Mia and I hang out together and Roy and Dinah seem nice enough."

Sirius nodded, a relieved look on his face. "Good. I have something for you. I was going to give it to you for Christmas, but with you living across the pond, I think it might be best to give it to you now."

Harry took the wrapped package from Sirius. He opened it to reveal a small mirror. "What is it?"

"A two way mirror," he explained. "I have the other mirror. With this you can talk to me anytime you want. Just say my name and my mirror will tell me you're calling. It works like a phone, except we can see each other's faces."

"Where did you get it?" asked Harry.

"James and I made them," he explained. "We used to talk to each other during detentions."

"Thanks," said Harry.

"So who is Luna?"

Harry sat down. "She's a Ravenclaw a year below me. She and her father are in the Colonies for the summer working on some article for the Quibbler."

"The Quibbler?"

"Yeah, Mr. Lovegood is the editor," said Harry.

"Jake Lovegood became editor of the Quibbler?" said Sirius, an amused look on his face. "Should have known he'd do something like that. What about Selene Lovegood?"

"Mrs. Lovegood died five years ago."


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Luna looked at the dog. She tilted her head to the side, blinked once, then sat down.

"Aren't you supposed to run screaming or have a heart attack or something?" said Harry.

"Why would I do that?" she asked, confusion clear.

"Snuffles looks like a grim."

"I like grims," she announced. "Mummy got me a grim puppy from the cemetery once. I miss Ripper. She was a good grim. Then she followed Mummy to the other side."

"So what do you want to do today? We finished all the essays."

"Daddy said I need to talk to Mr. Queen. Can we do that and then got to a-what was that word-arcade?"

"Sure," said Harry. He turned to Snuffles. "Are you going back?" The dog barked. "Then I'll call you tonight."

* * *

"Hey Mia, Luna and I are going to the cinema tomorrow night. Do you want to come with us? We're going to go see Dracula: Dead and Loving It."

Harry stopped short. "And you are definitely not Mia."

Luna stared unblinkingly at the people on the couch. Nobody spoke as Harry's hand slowly moved toward his wand. Finally a voice broke the silence.

"Did you know that you look just like Superboy?"

"Luna," Harry said, trying to stop her before she stumbled upon something she shouldn't know. It was entirely possible that one of the three boys was Superboy. Mia was a member of the Teen Titans, after all. "If you ask me-wait-was that a Jackalope?!"

Luna looked around then sat down on the coffee table with a sigh. "I think there's a Wrackspurt in your mind again."

"Maybe Luna, they are invisible, after all," he said, grabbing a seat on the one free armchair. "Oh, I'm Harry and this is Luna. Are you friends of Mia's?"

"Yeah," said a teenager with black hair and blue eyes. "I'm Tim, the guy with red hair is Bart, Rachel is the girl on the loveseat, the blonde is Cassie and she's sitting on Connor's lap."

"How do you know Mia?" asked Cassie.

"Foster brother," he said. "Uncle Ollie is my legal guardian."

"'Uncle Ollie'?"

"His maternal grandmother and Ollie's mother were sisters," said Mia as she came out of the kitchen carrying two bowls of popcorn.

"Hey Luna. Doesn't your father generally want you back by moonrise?"

"Daddy's talking to a man about a Crumple-Horned Snorkack," she said. "I'm supposed to find someplace else to spend the night. Mr. Queen already said I could stay until Daddy was done with his business."

"We were planning on having a horror movie night," said Mia. "Child's Play one through three, Bride of Chucky, and Seed of Chucky."

"Luna, I'm not sure you want to see this," said Harry. "The movies are about a possessed doll that kills people."

"Does it kill with magic?" she asked in a small voice.

"No, I don't think so," said Harry. Tim gave him a questioning look. Harry gave a barely noticeable shake of the head. "I just wasn't sure if seeing people die would make you… uncomfortable."

"I'll be fine," said Luna. "You'll protect me, right?"

"Sure."

Mia grabbed a seat next to Tim and handed him the remote. As Tim started the movie, Luna moved to sit at Harry's feet, her head on his knee. After the first couple of minutes, she wrapped her arms around his leg.

* * *

"Cassie, can you do me a favor?"

"Yeah, Mia?"

"While I take Harry out of the room, could you tell Luna…"

* * *

In between Child's Play One and Child's Play Two, Mia pulled Harry out of the room.

Making sure nobody was listening, she asked, "What's up with Luna?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Asking her if she was alright to watch the movie."

Harry turned to look away from her. "Luna was there when her mother died, five years ago. I don't know the specifics, but it was a messy death."

Mia nodded. "If she seems to get-"

"I'm taking her out of the room if one of the movies start to bother her."

Carrying a bowl of popcorn for himself and Luna, he sat back down in the chair. Before he realized what she was doing, Luna had sat herself across his lap.

Her head rested on his left shoulder just below his head. Luna's behind was between his legs and her own legs were thrown over the arm of the chair. Somehow, her knee length skirt managed to remain in place.

"I love popcorn," Luna said, plucking the bowl from his hands.

"Uh-uh," was all Harry managed to say, still trying to process what had happened. "Wha-when-ho…"

She was on his lap. She was sitting. On. His. Lap. She was all soft and warm and her hair smelled really nice. No. No! Stop thinking about her hair! Even if it did smell like strawberries.

Harry glanced around frantically, trying to figure out what to do. Mia and Cassie wore rather smug smiles. Rachel and Bart seemed rather intent on watching the movie. Connor was snickering, until Cassie elbowed him. Tim just gave him a sort of shrug that said there was nothing to be done.

Why was she sitting on his lap? Obviously Mia and Cassie had put her up to this, but why? The only time he ever saw girls sitting on somebody's lap was if they were… scarlet women, as Mrs. Weasley would say, or they were sitting on their boyfriend's lap.

Wait-Did Luna want to be his girlfriend? But she was-and he-and… Harry shifted slightly so that Luna was no longer so close to a certain delicate part of his body.

It wasn't so bad, he supposed. Luna did smell rather nice. She was rather pretty too. She had long blonde hair and those silvery eyes that didn't seem to blink as often as a normal person did. And she was that nice sort of soft. Not all stringy like Mia, Cassie, Rachel, and even Ginny. And she had a really first-rate bum. The way it swayed back and forth when she walked…

For a moment Harry's eyes were drawn to the top of Luna's shirt. He had to admit that her other… assets were pleasant. Only a handful or so each, but that wasn't so bad.

Without realizing it, his arms moved to rest around her waist.

Did he like Luna? She was kind and smart enough to be entering fifth year instead of fourth. She was always talking about all of those strange creatures and she had those really weird radish earrings.

She didn't seem to care about his fame. He knew that was the only reason Parvati had gone to the Yule Ball with him. He liked talking to her. It was nice to be able to talk to somebody without have facts or Quidditch strategy spouted at him. And she really was very pretty in a soft sort of way, so long as you didn't mind her perpetually surprised look.

Maybe he would ask Luna out to the cinema without Mia along. Or to the first Hogsmeade weekend. No, that was too long to wait. The first Hogsmeade weekend was months away. To the cinema. That was it, he would ask her to the cinema.

Now he just had to find some way to get revenge against Mia for putting him on the spot like this. He was the son of a Marauder. It shouldn't be that hard to figure out something that didn't involve magic.

* * *

By the time Mia's friends left, it was nearly dawn. Thinking that Harry and Luna were soundly asleep on the chair, Mia went upstairs.

After Mia left, Harry opened his eyes. The idea was perfect. He just had to wait until Luna awoke.

He could move, he supposed, but it was rather comfortable. His legs weren't even asleep or anything. And Luna did smell really nice.

"Harry? Why are you still awake?" asked Luna.

Even better, Luna wasn't asleep. "Plotting my evil master plan."

"What sort of evil master plan? Can I be your Hench Girl?" Luna asked. "I don't have any dark clothing, but I suppose I could find something-"

"Don't see why not," said Harry. "Come on, we should do this while Mia is asleep."

Finding the ingredients he needed, Harry led Luna to the bathroom he shared with Mia and Connor. Finished with what he had planned, Harry took Luna to the guest bedroom. Technically, it was Roy's bedroom for when he visited.

"Luna?"

"Yes Harry?"

"Would you go with me to the movies tonight?"

She blinked at him. "I already said I would."

Gathering his courage, Harry said, "As a date, not as friends."

Luna smiled at him, eyes lighting up. "Yes."

* * *

Harry cooked breakfast, waiting patiently for Mia to appear. Connor and Uncle Ollie were busy trying to decipher something Luna had said.

"Well Hermione thinks that the legend of Jackalopes is the result of some spell gone wrong," said Luna. "But Daddy and I think they're a well hidden hybrid of the rare killer rabbit and the pygmy deer. I want to have one as a pet. Daddy said I could keep one when we found a warren of Jackalopes."

Hearing a loud, feminine scream from the second floor, Harry smirked. "Luna, finish up eating. I already packed us a lunch."

"What did you-" Uncle Ollie started to say.

At that moment Mia burst into the kitchen. Clad only in a towel, the reason for her distress was clear. Her skin was green.

"I'm going to kill you!" she growled at Harry.

"It's your own fault for messing with other people's love lives," said Harry.

As Mia reached for Harry, he vaulted over the counter. He grabbed Luna's arm and ran out the door.

As he left, he called out, "We'll be back for dinner!"


	10. Chapter 10

I have finals in a couple weeks, so updates might not be all that regular for a while.

Chapter 10

Harry was on line for the movie when Hedwig arrived. Without care for the Muggles around, she landed on his shoulder.

"Hey Hedwig," he said softy. He took the letter from around her leg and said, "Good job girl. Why don't you go back to my place. I left my window open for you."

Hedwig hooted once, then flew off. Seeing Hermione's neat script, Harry stuffed the letter into his pocket. He could read it later.

* * *

Reach for the popcorn. Hands brush against each other. Blush. Look away.

It was nauseatingly sweet, Mr. Lovegood decided. And rather innocent. His little girl's first date. At least the boy seemed as nervous as Luna.

There had been a message waiting for him when he'd arrived back at the hotel room. Luna had just called to tell him that she wouldn't be back until moonrise because she had a date.

He was still annoyed that the boy hadn't bothered to ask his permission. Other than messy black hair, he had no clue as to the identity of the boy. Luna had mentioned that he was a Gryffindor a year above her and on the House Quidditch team, that his parents were dead and he was living with relatives in the Colonies.

That description fit far too many. The Death Eaters had still been a force to be reckoned with when this boy would have been born. The still were.

Ten minutes later, the boy tried the old yawn and stretch routine. Arm around Luna's shoulder, she leaned her head against his. Mr. Lovegood fought the urge to hurt the boy.

* * *

bzzzzzzzzzz

Something vibrated in his pocket. What on earth? After a moment Harry realized it was the mirror Sirius had given him. They had spoken the night before. Why was Sirius calling again so soon? Best to find out.

"Luna, I'll be right back," said Harry, standing up.

"Where are you going?"

"The men's room. Do you want anything from the concessions stand while I'm up?"

"Something chocolate, please."

"No problem."

Harry entered the bathroom and looked around carefully. Sure that nobody would see him, he pulled out the mirror.

"Sirius?"

"What took you so long? Eating dinner?"

"Actually, I'm out on a date," Harry said, before clamping his mouth shut. How could he have said such a thing? Sirius would tease him endlessly.

"With who?"

"Luna," Harry said quietly. "We're at the cinema."

"I'll call you back in a couple hours," smirked Sirius.

Five minutes later, Harry came back into the theater carrying a Kit Kat bar.

* * *

As they walked, Harry took Luna's hand. It was not until they reached Luna's hotel that he even realized he had done so.

"So… uh," Harry said nervously.

Was he supposed to kiss her? He didn't remember.

"Can we go to the carnival next time?"

Harry breathed a sigh of relief. "Sounds good. I think there's one over in… Uh meet around two tomorrow?"

"Yes."

Before he could react, Luna leaned toward him. A quick kiss and then she scurried into her hotel room.

* * *

Harry walked back into the brownstone cautiously. There was no doubt in his mind that Mia would find some form of revenge. There were only two questions; when and how would he strike back.

Harry may not have been a prankster like the Weasley twins, but one could not be both the son of a Marauder and the godson of another Marauder without having some sort of pranking instinct. Maybe he should ask Sirius on advice for Muggle pranks.

"Harry."

He smirked at the shadow. "Personally, I think blue would look better on you than green, Mia. Don't know what I was thinking when I picked that shade of green. I'll remember it for next time. Maybe I can do something with polka dots or plaid. You know, maybe you should try being a brunette."

"Enough, you two," said Uncle Ollie. "Where were you, Harry?"

"Date," he said with a shrug. "Luna and I went to the movies."

"I thought you said you didn't like Luna in that way," said Mia, a self-satisfied smirk apparent.

"I changed my mind. There's still a carnival over by the docks, right?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"I promised to take Luna to a carnival tomorrow. Need to go, Connor's expecting me. We're training tonight."

He hurried toward the basement, unwilling to wait for Mia to remember her anger or for Uncle Ollie to remember to tease him.

* * *

"Did you enjoy your date, beeswax?"

"Yes Daddy. Harry is taking me to a carnival tomorrow."

"It went that well, huh," said Mr. Lovegood.

He watched his daughter hum happily to herself. She was sewing again. Briefly, Jake Lovegood wondered exactly why Luna was sewing so many copies of the same outfit. Admittedly, they were in different sizes and appropriate for different weather, but Luna was acting as if… No. That couldn't be it. She was just being helpful by making a uniform for some superhero. There was nothing else to it.

"Daddy, why did you leave?"

"I had important business for the Quibbler." A well rehearsed answer for a question he could never answer. At least not so long as his daughter was a civilian.

"That wasn't what I meant. Daddy, why did you leave the Muggle world?"

He sat down in a chair, wondering what had brought on this question. "I had no reason to stay, not really. By the time I started Hogwarts I had no desire to be near any of the Muggles I knew, and when I was sorted into Slytherin, I couldn't let on that I was Muggle-born. Sure I still went back to the Muggle world on occasion, but after I met your mother, I couldn't put her in danger by continuing to associate with people who could have… put her, and later you, in danger." Jake shook his head. "It was bad enough that we had to deal with Death Eaters, I was not going to put my family into even more danger."

"But why? Was grandfather not human like Aquaman? Or did he have powers like the Flash?" For once Luna looked serious. "What about grandmother?"

"Both my parents were ordinary humans," said Jake. For all that his father ran around in tights saving the universe, he was still a relatively normal human. Sort of. "Why the sudden interest in your grandparents?"

"It's not important, Daddy," she said. "Could you put some spells on that clothing over there?"

* * *

"So, dyeing Mia's skin green."

Harry aimed the bow carefully. He and Connor had just finished sparring. After they were done with archery practice, they would spar again. After that, Connor would continue the lesson on using a sword.

"She started it." He released the arrow. It hit the target with a satisfying thud.

"Do I want to know?"

Harry notched another arrow. "Mia and one of her friends convinced Luna to sit on my lap while we were watching movies." The arrow was released, hitting the target a couple inches away from the previous. At least his aim was getting better.

"And?" Connor reached over and corrected Harry's stance.

"We went out on a date," Harry said in a quiet voice. The arrow hit the target between the previous two. "I like Luna. A lot. She's not Cho. But Cho and I could never have been together."

Connor gave Harry a hard look. "If you're planning on using Luna as a replacement for Cho-"

"I'm not. Really, I'm not," Harry said quickly. "It's just that, before Luna sat on my lap, I hadn't really thought about her in that way."

"And now that you've started to think about her 'in that way'?"

He notched another arrow. "I don't know if I can like Luna like that, but I want to-I want to give it a shot." Release. The arrow split the one of the previous arrows in half.

* * *

Remus Lupin knew something was up when he saw Sirius grinning like the cat that ate the canary. Undoubtable, something would soon explode or somebody would soon have polka dot patterns on their skin.

"Do I want to know, or should I just sit back and watch?"

"Sit back," said Sirius. "Snivellus wont know what hit him. But we have more important things to talk about."

Eyeing his maniacly grinning friend, Remus seriously considered running for the hills. Or at least the Shrieking Shack.

"What can be more important than a prank?"

"Why Harry's first date, of course."

"What? Harry went on a date? With a Muggle? Or was it a witch?" said Remus.

"A date, yes Harry went on a date, no, yes."

"Sirius," growled Remus. "Just tell me who he went out with."

"Luna Lovegood, old Jake Lovegood's daughter." Sirius's smirk was back in full force.

Remus let out a laugh. "I remember her. She's a year below Harry and fully believes that all things printed in the Quibbler are true." Suddenly another thought occurred to him. "Harry isn't playing with her, is he? The poor girl makes Selene Lovegood look normal in comparison. When I taught her, she didn't really have any friends other than Ginny."


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

"What are your intentions?"

"Huh?" Harry blinked stupidly at the mirror. "What intentions are you talking about, Sirius?"

"Your intentions toward Luna."

Another confused blink. "What are you talking about? We're just dating."

"Look, Jake Lovegood and I were partners back before… back during the war," said Sirius. "You're may be my godson, but Luna is… she's like a niece. Just don't play with her."

"Why the hell do people keep thinking I'm only going out with Luna to mess with her?" demanded Harry. "And we've only been on one date. Sure, we're going on another date tomorrow, but…"

Sirius sighed. "Don't you know? When did you start hanging out with Luna?"

"This summer. We only really spoke once before I ran into her in Star City." Harry sighed. "What don't I know? And for that matter, what were you doing that you were partnered with the editor of the Quibbler?"

"Let's just leave it at, the Quibbler is much more than it seems and Jake Lovegood was not always the editor of a tabloid," said Sirius. "According to Moony, Luna has no friends other than Ginny Weasley. Well, she had no other friends in second year."

What? Why would they-alright, so Luna could be a little strange. But that was one of things he liked about her. For a moment Harry hated his age mates. They were little better than most adults. Luna was too good a person to be treated in such a way. Even if it didn't work out between them, he wouldn't allow people to hurt Luna in that way.

"I'm dating Luna because I like her and she's smart and because she doesn't care that I'm boy-who-just-won't-die," said Harry. "Do they tease her? Tell Moony to send me a list of the names of people who have messed with her."

"Harry, what are you-"

"And some books with good potions and spells for… extracurricular activity," said Harry. Maybe… huh, that might be a good idea. Even if the professors suspected, they wouldn't be able to do anything without proof. "Could you teach me and Ron and Hermione how to become animagi?"

Sirius grinned at him. "The Weasleys and Hermione are staying at the same place as I am, this summer. I'll give Ron and Hermione lessons during the day and teach you through the mirror at night. A book on animagi and animagus transformations will arrive in a couple days along with the potion ingredients you'll need. Now, what type of extracurricular activities were you thinking about?"

"With Voldemort back, we'll need something to take our minds off the war," Harry said. "A perfect year for the Marauders to make a comeback."

* * *

Harry and Luna wandered the carnival, hand in hand. They had gone on several of the rides, much to Luna's enjoyment. Apparently Luna liked to fly just as much as he did, and roller coasters were quite a bit like flying. Except safer.

Luna stopped walking, her eyes on a game booth. It quickly became apparent why the booth had attracted her interest. One of the possible prizes was a stuffed toy that bore a stricking resemblance to a jackalope.

"Come on," said Harry, leading her to the booth. "What do I need to do to win the jackalope?"

"Pop three balloons," said the man. "Four darts for two dollars, ten for five dollars."

"Harry, you don't need to-" Luna started to say.

He quickly pulled out two dollars. "Four darts, please."

Taking careful aim, Harry threw the first dart. Missed. Harry glanced at Luna. Breath in, breath out. Aim. Breath in, breath out. Throw. POP! Ignoring everything around him, Harry took aim once more. He threw the dart. POP! He saw nothing, heard nothing other than his breath. As if in a trance, Harry threw the last dart. POP!

"The jackalope, please," said Harry.

The man behind the booth was still staring at where three balloons used to be. The boy was the first to win one of the better prizes all day. Finally, the man handed Harry one of the jackalope stuffed toys.

"For you," Harry said, handing Luna the toy.

Luna grinned, a look of pure delight on her face. Before Harry could react, Luna had hugged him. Standing on tip toes she gave him a quick kiss.

"I love it."

* * *

"Read this by Monday."

Hermione and Ron looked up from the chess game they were playing on Ron's bed. A book had londed rather solidly on the chess board, scattering the pieces. There was one word upon the musty old book: Animagus.

"Sirius-what are you-" Hermione started to say.

"Harry decided he wanted to learn to become one," said Sirius. "I'll be teaching you two as well. We'll start the potion on Monday."

"But it takes ages to learn to become an animagus," Ron finally managed to say.

"Not if you know the right potion," said Sirius, a smirk upon his face. "Now, where's that sister of yours?"

"Why? Are you teaching Ginny as well?"

"What? No," Sirius shook his head. "Remus wants a list of the people who have been unjustifiably… rude to a certain student."

"Which student?" asked Hermione.

"Luna something-or-another."

"Lovegood?" asked Ron.

"Yeah, that's it."

"Ginny's with the twins." Ron looked down. If it had been any other brother, Ron would not have said anything, but Percy had betrayed the family. Despite how odd he thought Loony Lovegood, what Percy had said was cruel. "Percy called Luna some pretty nasty things once. Back when he was Head Boy. Said it was her own fault people were picking on her and called her a bumbling lunatic and some other stuff. Made her cry and everything."

"Thanks."

* * *

"What?"

"Professor Lupin wants a list of the people who have picked on Luna Lovegood," Sirius repeated. "It's important."

"Sure," Ginny said slowly.

Why would anybody want to know that about Loony Lovegood? Maybe those people were going to punished or something. Yes, that made sense.

* * *

"Remus, if anybody asks, you wanted a list of people treated Luna Lovegood badly."

"Sirius, what is going on?"

"Harry wanted a list of the people who had teased her," said Sirius. "And he wants to learn to be an animagus. I'll be spending the summer teach him, Ron, and Hermione."

"Sirius…"

Then Sirius grinned. It was the grin. The grin capable of making Severus Snape wet himself in fear.

"He wants to be a Marauder. Asked for books with good spells for pranks and everything. Oh, and you need to make a list of as well."

Remus felt a headache coming on.

* * *

Harry wrote a quick reply to Hermione. Then realizing that she and Ron were staying in the same place-Sirius had told him so, Harry started another letter. This one about his plans. Well, some of his plans.

* * *

Hermione and Ron,

I asked Snuffles to teach you what he has no doubt mentioned by now. When we get back to school, we should study together, maybe start a club. A club like the one my father started. It's about time it was revived, don't you agree?

I've already thought of a couple targets for the club. I'm sure you'll want to contribute targets as well. If you ask Snuffles or Moony nicely, I'm sure they could give you some ideas on group projects the club could get involved with.

Have you ever tried Muggle self defense? We have no gym classes, so I thought it would be a way for us to exercise. Maybe it could be part of what we study together. A study group to learn what the blonde, memory deficient man pretended to know.

Harry.

* * *

Rachel Roth, better known as the half demon superhero Raven, was unsure of what she should do. Both Harry and Luna were magic users, and in Harry's case, unusually strong.

They had openly admitted to attending Hogwarts. The only question was; did Green Arrow know Hogwarts was one of the best schools of magic in the world? Probably not. And Harry was learning the… family trade from various people. Why would the boy be interested in learning how to fight the Muggle way?

All sources suggested that the boy-who-lived was a spoiled and slightly unstable young man. Obviously these sources were wrong. But if Harry was sane, then Voldemort really was back. Then Harry was learning how to fight the Muggle way so that he would stand a chance during the war that was undoubtedly about to break out.

Then her thoughts moved to Luna. Lovegood was a pure-blood family in relatively good standing. They rarely picked a side during the various wars, preferring to stay neutral. An odd choice of alliance for a decidedly light family such as the Potters, but a good one nonetheless. If Harry had the support of a neutral family, it would only help him gain support.

There had been some sort of scandal around the turn of the century, though. Something about a witch of the family bearing a child out of wedlock. No doubt the girl's grandfather or great grandfather. That boy had been the only male Lovegood. Oh yes, that was why there was such a big scandal. The family heir had been illegitimate.

Raven couldn't shake the feeling that there had been something odd about the girl's eyes. Something not quite…

* * *

Harry sat on the floor, a several dozen or so sheets of paper spread out on the coffee table in front of him.

A list of all students in Hogwarts divided by year and house, going all the way back to his first year. A couple lists of people he knew divided by loyalties. To the left was a piece of paper. The paper had several columns labeled by number. In each column were names of people or groups he felt should be pranked.

There were several pages held together by paperclip. It was covered by spells, wand movements, and potions. What he planned to learn with Ron and Hermione when he returned to Hogwarts.

Several texts, both Muggle and Magical were also spread out before him. He was analyzing battles, wars, previous Dark Lords, and what effects the magical world had on its Muggle counterpart. The Muggle texts-taken out of the local library with the help of Connor-covered everything from battle tactics to actual battles to books written on various superheroes and their actions battling criminals, alien invaders, and other such evils.

With Luna gone until next Wednesday, Harry thought it to be the perfect time to work on things of this nature. When she returned… well he wasn't really sure what he'd do. They had already planned on going to a Muggle zoo on Thursday next. Maybe he could get Luna to help him with this research. Say it was for a private project or something. That wasn't too far from the truth.

Maybe he could convince Remus or Sirius to get him some more advanced books on magic. There was so much he wanted-no, needed to learn.

* * *

Dinah Lance stopped short, blinked once, then twice. Harry was in the living room with at least twenty books and a small mountain of papers spread out in front of him. She turned to Ollie.

"How long has he been at this?"

Ollie shrugged. "After breakfast, he and Connor went to the library. By the time I came back for lunch, Harry had commandeered the room."

"What is he doing?"

"He told Connor something about a history project for school. Extra credit."

* * *

"So, who are the Marauders?"

Harry coughed, nearly chocking on the food in his mouth. After several moment, Harry caught his breath. He looked up at Dinah.

"It's what my father and his friends called themselves," Harry said. "They were pranksters back when they went to Hogwarts."


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Hermione stared at the paper in her hands. To letters had just come from Harry. One addressed to her and one addressed to herself and Ron. The one addressed only to her had spoken about Harry's job, his cousin's five year old daughter (apparently Harry had done some babysitting), and a girl.

The other letter was much more worrying.

"Does the letter say what I think Harry is trying to say?" Ron said, breaking the silence.

"That Harry wants to start the Marauders back up and that the three of us should start preparing for war? That we should learn some form of martial arts?" Hermione said. "Yeah, it does."

Ron gave a sharp nod. "I've stood by Harry this far, don't see a reason to back down now. You?"

"Dad has some friends from back when he was in the army," Hermione said. "I'm sure I can find somebody to teach us to fight. It's better than sitting around here doing nothing while the adults discuss what to do."

* * *

A rather innocuous package addressed to Harry Potter arrived in the mail that Saturday. It had been waiting for him when he returned from work at the Youth Center. Recognizing the handwriting as belonging to Sirius, Harry had quickly taken the package up to his room.

Sitting on his bed, he opened the package. At the top was a wooden box and a small silver cauldron carefully packed with bubble wrap. A note atop the box said potion ingredients. Harry put them to the side gently. A large, old book with the word Animagus embossed in the cover. Harry pulled the book out. The titles of the next couple of books caught his eye. Practical Defensive Magic and its Use Against the Dark Arts, the next was titled: Charms, Jinxes, and You, another was called Most Potente Potions. There was A Healer's Guide to Spells and Potions, Vol. 1-5. The last book was: Fun with Transfiguration.

Underneath all the books were several pieces of paper. One a letter from Sirius, the other two were lists of names.

* * *

Harry

The books you requested. Read the book called Animagus as soon as possible. Once you're finished with it I'll start your training. Fun with Transfiguration and Charms, Jinxes, and You are some of the best books for pranks and for studying. The other two books have more useful spells.

I included the books on healing for a reason. When practicing new spells, it is easy to accidentally injure yourself or others. Not to mention whatever you-know-who might be up to. It's best to be prepared. You might want to have one of your friends study the books. An unregistered, unknown healer is always useful.

There are also two lists. If anybody asks, Remus wanted a list of people who have teased Luna. I tried to have both Ginny and Remus include what the person had done next to the name.

Sirius

* * *

Harry put the books away on various shelves in positions where one could not see the title unless on the windowsill. The cauldron and box of ingredients went into the bottom of his underwear drawer. He headed to dinner, Animagus book in hand. Hopefully he'd be able to start reading right after dinner.

* * *

"Another book?"

Harry gave Uncle Ollie a look. "What good is being physically fit if you don't have the brains to form a sentence? Do you guys have any law books around here?"

"He has a point," said Connor. "I think there's a book or two on law somewhere. Didn't know you could read Latin, though."

Harry had almost forgotten the book was in Latin. Sirius had sent Harry several books on learning Latin and Greek before fourth year. Apparently it was expected that all pure-bloods be able to read and write both.

"And classical Greek," said Harry. "It's easier than learning French. Never could get past bonjour."

"Latin and Greek, what language next?"

"None. Two are more than enough for me," said Harry.

* * *

Ollie paused outside Harry's room. He'd been on his way to see Connor, but the sound of voices made him pause.

"… the book," said a male voice he didn't recognize.

"Yeah, I'm halfway through," said Harry. "Is it really that easy?"

A muffled noise.

"And everyone?"

The other male spoke in a voice too low to hear.

"Good. And what did Hermione and Ron say about my starting the group back up?"

"….agreed… father in army… dentist… judo," said the male voice. "… Moony knows… not suspicious… how…schoolwork… essays."

"All my essays are done. The rest of the summer can be spent on my… other activities. Already have a couple ideas on what to do about the Malfoy problem. How do you think the school would feel about the return of the Amazing Bouncing Ferret with the even more amazing ability to sing songs from Muggle films?"

A deep booming laughter was heard. "Can't… see it… else…"

"Oh, I've already started. I'm not sure what the professors will do if the Marauders use Muggle pranks," laughed Harry. "You wouldn't believe how easy it is to dye somebody's skin."

"…how?"

"Trade secret. But Mia deserved it. I don't mess around in her love life, she shouldn't mess around in mine."

"… tell them…"

"No, I'm not," Harry said, his voice fierce. "I'm not going through that again. Maybe I'll tell them right before I return to Hogwarts. I don't feel like being kicked out just because I'm a no goof freak."

"But-"

"No Sirius. I'm not telling them. The Dursleys hated me because of this. Hell, if it wasn't for Dumbledork they would have thrown me out on the street somewhere when I was a kid. I am not messing this up. These people like me, and since they're the only family I have left, I'm not taking any chances."

"Harry… and…"

"What did you do with Luna's father? You said the two of you were partners, but in what? Like an Auror or something?"

"…close…can't…contract…secret…"

"Oh fine. Hey, what is Luna, anyway? I won't have to deal with psychotic family that wants to kill me for dating her, will I? Cause if they're like the Malfoys, I'm not sure I could continue to date her."

"… half-bl… last of the family… Slytherin but good… mo… Ravenclaw…"

"Gotta go. I need to get up around four. Talk to you tomorrow."

* * *

"So beeswax, why don't you tell me a little bit about this boyfriend of yours."

"What about him, Daddy?"

"Family. What he intends to do after Hogwarts. Who his friends are. That sort of thing."

Luna looked up from the campfire. "He lives with his Uncle Ollie and his cousins Mia and Connor. Oliver Queen, that is. Harry works at a youth Center on Friday afternoons, Saturdays, and Sundays. I think his friends are one of the Weasleys and a Muggle-born named Hermione." Luna glanced away, watching several nargles. She wasn't sure why the nargles were infesting a redwood tree rather than mistletoe, but it didn't really matter. "He wants to be an Auror like his father."

"Oliver Queen? About my height, blonde hair, stupid looking goatee? That son of his, is his mother Moonday Hawke?"

"Daddy, you don't need to try to hide it from me. How could I not know that Mr. Queen is really Green Arrow, Connor is Green Arrow as well, and Mia is Speedy? It's really very obvious."

"I-of course beeswax. Did Harry tell you he was going to be a cape as well?"

"No, but he only really decided in the past week and a half."

* * *

Petunia resisted the urge to say something unladylike. Who would call at such a ridiculous hour?

"Dursley residence, Petunia speaking."

"This is Oliver," a male voice ground out. "What didn't you tell me about Harry?"

"I-I n-noth-nothing." Petunia felt faint. Queen damn well better not be trying to send the boy back.

"Don't lie to me."

"What did the little freak do this time?" she snapped. "Turn somebody into a toad?"

"Explanation. Now."

"The freak's a wizard," she said. "His mother and father were wizards as well. That Hog-something place teaches wizards to use magic. I'm not taking the boy back. I don't care whether or not you keep the boy, but I am not letting the freak back into this house."

"A wizard?"

"Oh yes, they have their own little society and everything. Those freaks even send mail with owls."

"And Sirius Black?"

"The freak's godfather. He's a wizard too. The man killed thirteen people at once. The boy kept threatening to have Black over last summer. Never call here again."

With that, Petunia slammed the phone down.

* * *

"And the potion…"

"Puts you in a trance," said Harry. "Once there, you see the form you will take. Once you have seen your form, you'll wake up. After that, you need to do ages of research on the animal. Then, once you know as much as possible, you do the spell to change."

"Good. How's the potion going so far?"

"I'm at the third stage-oh, have to add lacewings."

* * *

"Hogwarts? I think it's a school of magic in Scotland," said Wonder Woman.

* * *

"Never heard of it," said Zatanna. "Is it a person or something?"

* * *

"It's one of the best schools of magic in the world," said Dr. Fate. "They focus on Order magic and defense against Chaos magic. A standard seven year apprenticeship at Hogwarts from age eleven to seventeen prepares a young witch or wizard to enter magical society. If any of your children show signs of magic, that is where you want them to go. Although they do tend to rely on their focus too much, but that can easily be fixed with the right training."

* * *

"I vaguely remember hearing about Hogwarts," said Aquaman. "Don't remember where…"

* * *

"This isn't really about Hogwarts," said Raven. "This is about Harry."

"Look-" Ollie started to say.

"You want to know whether or not Harry is trustworthy." Raven paused. "Harry has no desire to jeopardize his relationship with the only family he has that actually like him. He really does want to become a cop after graduating from Hogwarts. Although among his people, they're called Aurors, or dark wizard hunters."

"And Tom Riddle?"

"One of the most frightening forces of Chaos on the planet. Harry is the only one to face him five times and survive intact. Although Riddle prefers the name Voldemort."

"Sirius Black?"

"A pure-blood wizard from a long line of dark wizards." Raven shrugged. "Harry trusts him for good reason."

With that Raven disappeared, no doubt using her soul self.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Hermione and Ron glanced at the potion nerviously. It had been agreed that Remus would watch them while they were in their trance and Sirius would watch after Harry.

"Go on," said Remus. "You should only be out for an hour. I'm not sure we'll be able to find another window of opportunity."

"On the count of three," said Hermione. "One, two, three."

Both of them swallowed the potion quickly. Hermione gasped, then fell to the floor, barely managing to land on the pillows Remus had put out. Ron held his hand to his throat for several seconds then fell, landing next to Hermione.

* * *

"It's best if you just chug the potion," explained Sirius. "Tastes nasty going down and even nastier coming back up."

"How nasty?" asked Harry.

"Even skelegrow tastes better."

Harry shuddered, then chugged the potion. Already sitting on the bed, he merely fell to the side. The potions vial dropped out of his grip, landing on the ground with a crash.

* * *

Jake Lovegood watched Luna attempt to find fish, trying not to laugh. While he had a fishing pole and line, Luna perched on a rock. She would watch the fish. When one was close enough, she would reach into the water and grab it.

Unfortunately, he had only caught one fish so small it had to be thrown back. By Luna's side were three fish she had managed to throw out of the water.

She reached into the water once more. Her left foot slipped against the rock. Splash! Luna soon came back to the surface, an annoyed look upon her face.

* * *

Hermione opened her eyes to the ocean. She was on a rock with cliffs a hundred feet back and water all around her. Unsure of what to expect, she settled herself on the rock, dipping her foot into the water.

* * *

The forest looked familiar, Ron decided. Quite like the forest near his house. He leaned back against a tree to wait.

* * *

Harry couldn't help but blink. Definitely not what he had expected. At least he wasn't a sparrow or some type of reptile. He kind of wished that his form had been one with wings. Ah well.

* * *

Hermione grinned as the creature popped its head out of the water. What a lovely creature.She couldn't wait to start her research. Hermione reached out to pet the animal.

* * *

Ron stared at the animal nosing his foot. Unexpected, but certainly appreciated. He started to smile.

* * *

"Well? What's your form?"

Harry smirked. "Let's just leave it at my ability to speak parsletongue is natural and not the result of Voldemort."

* * *

Ollie dished out pudding to the children at the youth center, thinking. What should be done about Harry?

The boy hadn't hidden his magical heritage, just neglected to mention it, along with quite a few key things. A dark wizard wanted Harry dead, and he sat there telling them a story about organized crime. And there was his request to learn to fight.

* * *

"Come on, tell me," whined Sirius.

"Nope. You can find out during my first transformation."

Sirius glared and started to mumble. All Harry caught was "father," "damnit," "figures," "potters," and "stupid smirk."

* * *

"Harry, get your bow and quiver."

"Huh?"

"You and I are heading out to an archery field," said Uncle Ollie. "I want to see what Connor's been teaching you."

* * *

"So?" said Remus.

Hermione was practically jumping in place. "Sea otter! I'm a sea otter!"

"Fox," said Ron.

* * *

Uncle Ollie was a dozen times better than him, but that didn't bother Harry much. He had only been learning for three weeks.

"What grade did you get in potions this year?"

Harry felt the blood drain from his face. The bow fell from his hand.

"I want an explanation of the death of your parents, the men you killed, Sirius Black, dark wizards, what a Muggle is, and everything else you neglected to mention."

"I-" said Harry. "A muggle is a non-magical person. Mum was Muggle-born because both her parents were non-magical…" And so he explained, trying to keep everything in chronological order, answering the occasional question, fighting the urge to run the entire time. "… and that was how we rescued Hermione from a mountain troll. She covered for us, said she had tried to take on the troll herself and we rescued her. After that, Hermione was one of our closest friends…" "… I couldn't think of anything else, so I stabbed the diary with the fang…" "… Snape just sort of snuck into the Shrieking Shack and then when he thought is was a good time, burst into the room…" "So we both reached for the cup…"

"They sent him to jail without a trial?" was the first thing Uncle Ollie said when Harry finished.

"If they had sent him to trial, they would have found out Sirius was innocent," growled Harry. "Pettigrew told me to my face that he was the one who betrayed my parents, and Sirius is the one who will get the Kiss is the Ministry catches up to him."

"The Kiss?"

"Uh, Dememtor's Kiss. What happens is, they lower their hoods and suck out your soul with their mouths. Well, at least I think it's their mouth. It does look like a mouth. It's a fate worse than death."

"Right then, we should get back to archery. The sun will set soon."

* * *

They were in the car heading back to Star City when Uncle Ollie said, "You never did explain the point to the house system."

"Oh, that?" said Harry. "The school was founded by four people, two witches and two wizards. Rowena Ravenclaw, Helga Hufflepuff, Salazar Slytherin, and Godric Gryffindor. Each of the founders valued something different in their students and before they died, they charmed a hat so that it would be able to sort students as well.

"Ravenclaw valued intelligence, knowledge, and wit. Hufflepuff hardwork, patience, fair play, and friendship. Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff are rivals. Slytherin preferred pure-bloods who showed resourcefulness, cunning, and ambition. I nearly ended up in Slytherin, but I was put into Gryffindor instead. Gryffindor wanted students who were brave, chivalrous, and bold. Slytherins and Gryffindors are rivals. And most of Voldemort's supporters are in Slytherin."

"Why were you put into Gryffindor instead of Slytherin?"

Harry looked at his hands. "Because I begged to be placed anywhere but Slytherin. I had met Malfoy on the train and Malfoy had insulted by friend and acted just like my cousin and I didn't want to have anything to do with him and he had just been sorted into Slytherin."

* * *

"Come on, just put the money in the slot," Hermione hissed at Ron.

After a moment of wide-eyed staring, Ron managed to the bus fair Hermione had given him into the appropriate slot. Hermione led him to a seat near the back. This was only the first of four busses they would need to take to get anywhere near her home.

"Who are we meeting, anyway?"

"A friend of my father's, Ron," said Hermione, resisting the urge to hurt him. "I've already told you this five times."

"But traveling this way," whined Ron, motioning toward the rest of the bus.

"As far as your mother knows, we are working part time for my father. It makes more sense to travel to a Muggle dentist's office by bus than by portkey."

* * *

Harry was once more spread out through the living room. This time he was working on in-depth profiles of people he knew. Trying to categorize their abilities, how smart they actually were, how much of a threat they were to either side, whether or not they were really on the same side as he was, where they were.

"So what are you doing?"

Harry glanced up at Uncle Ollie. Noticing that Mia was in the kitchen flirting with Connor (well, it was more like flirting at Connor), he said, "Threat assessment, security risks, that sort of thing."

"Why is Ginny in that category?"

"She's been possessed before, it's possible for her to be possessed again."

"And Rita Skeeter?"

"Hermione's blackmailing her at the moment. She might turn on us for a chance to get away from Hermione, and she would make an excellent spy."

"I thought Hermione was the one who followed the rules."

Harry grinned. "She is, generally, but Rita should have known better than to write a whole series of stories about Hermione being in a love triangle with me and this professional athlete we know."

* * *

Hermione vaguely recognized the man from some old photos of her father and his friends from back when he had been in the military. She couldn't even begin to put a name to the man in front of her.

"Sweetie, this is Eddie Fyers," said Mr. Granger. "Eddie, this is my daughter, Hermione, and her friend, Ron. Where's Harry? I thought he would be coming with you."

"Harry's staying with a cousin out of the country," said Hermione.

"Who is Harry?" asked Eddie, obviously American, if his accent was anything to go on.

"A friend," said Hermione.

"Why do you two want to learn how to fight?"

"Harry pissed Tom Riddle off," said Ron. "And Riddle has had it out for my family for a while. Riddle's minions killed two of my Uncles. Hell, they're going to go after Hermione too, just because she's made it obvious that she's siding with Harry."

"Voldemort? Then you two are wizards," said Eddie.

"H-how did you know?" asked Hermione. "Dad said you were a Muggle."

"Hearnd rumors about him back when I was Black Ops." Eddie glanced at Hermione's bare legs. "You should put on pants or shorts. A skirt is not practical for fighting."

Hermione shook her head. "If I get into a fight, I'll be wearing a skirt. It's a cultural thing. Witches are expected to wear skirts unless they're participating in a sport. I only own two pairs of pants that fit these days."

"You own trousers," said Ron, clearly surprised. "I didn't know that."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Because I haven't worn pants at school since first year. Snape took off twenty points and told me to either put on something more appropriate for my gender or look into gender switching potions. When I talked to McGonagal, she told me that girls were only permitted to wear trousers when playing Quidditch for the sake of modesty."

"He did what?" growled Ron.

"It was before Halloween," said Hermione. "You and Harry weren't even talking to me yet."

"What length skirts and how restricting are they?" asked Eddie.

"Ankle length during the week," said Hermione. "We wear robes as part of the uniform. They're pretty loose; they've never tripped me up when I was running. When I'm out of uniform, generally knee length skirts. I've outgrown most of them on the past couple of months, so I was going to make more anyway. I can make skirts into whatever style works best."

"Make skirts?"

This time Ron chose to answer. "Unless you're trying to blend in with Muggles or buying school uniforms or dress robes, women in the family are responsible for making the clothing." He shrugged. "Except for my school robes and some jeans, Mum made all my clothing."

Eddie shrugged. "Well, you can hide more weapons under skirts than under any other type of clothing. Now you two explain the previous battles you've been in then we'll get to work."


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

"Mia, Connor, come here," said Ollie.

"What's this about?" asked Mia.

"Harry," he said. "He gave me permission to tell you two exactly what is taught at Hogwarts…"

* * *

Harry

We took your advice. One of Dad's old friends has agreed to teach us. We should have met him by the time you get this letter. According to Dad we'll be learning a great many things. I'll explain more when we see each other at Diagon Alley.

The first stage of our side project was successful. Miss Whiskers and Mr. Trick would like to be the first to welcome you to the club.

Hermione and Ron

* * *

Harry couldn't help but smile at the letter. Harry remembered quite clearly that Mr. Granger had not always been a mild mannered dentist. According to Hermione, back when Mr. Granger had been in the army, he had done things that were still classified, twenty years after the fact.

With training like that, when they got back to Hogwarts he would be able to get them up to the same level as himself relatively quickly. They'd be able to teach him the way people in the military fought as well. Perfect.

Now what could their animagus forms be? They obviously wanted him to guess. Well two could play this game. Now what could he call himself?

* * *

Miss Whiskers and Mr. Trick

Thank you for your warm welcome. Mr. Tavi is most pleased to hear of your progress. Who is this mysterious teacher of yours?

Mr. Tavi also believes Miss Whiskers and Mr. Trick should consider spells and potions for further learning. Our study group should be prepared.

Despite being the material of tabloids, Mr. Tavi believes superheroes are quite good examples. Examples which should be followed. Mr. Tavi would like to ask his friends if they have ever imagined themselves as superheroes, and if so, what names they would have used. Mr. Tavi is rather fond of the codename Redhood, himself.

Mr. Tavi

* * *

Hopefully Hermione would pick up on what he was trying to say. Harry knew that Ron and Hermione would stick by him to the end. If he put on a mask and a cape, he had no doubt that they would soon do the same.

He couldn't lie to them. Tell them that he was doing something else. And honestly, there was nobody he would rather have watching his back in a fight than Ron or Hermione. Even if Hermione did sometimes freeze up during a fight and start to over think things. He would just need to make sure they were capable of taking care of themselves in a fight first.

* * *

"If you could chose to be any type of animagus there is, what form would you choose?"

Harry shrugged. He and Luna were watching the penguins play. "I don't know. If I could choose, something with wings. You?"

"A cat, like Professor McGonagal," said Luna.

Harry smiled. That was what Luna's stare reminded him of! A cat. "I can see it. So, we have all day at the zoo, anything in particular you want to see?"

"The Long-nosed Cusimanse," she said.

He blinked. How did-nah she couldn't-but she's recognized Crouch-but this was… Harry felt a headache coming on.

"Let's go," he said, leading her in the direction of the mammals.

* * *

Hermione, it turned out, was an excellent shot. So long as she stuck with handguns. Anything bigger than that and her ability to aim seemed to disappear.

Despite it being illegal, she already had several ideas on ways to charm the guns she inherited from her father so that they never ran out of bullets. She was even considering ways of making the bullets hollow, with various potions inside.

Along with that was the idea of using magic to create objects shaped like bullets that were filled with potions. These objects would explode on contact, leaving no more than a bruise. A rather promising line of research.

Her skills at hand to hand combat were… limited at best. She was learning-slowly learning-how to fight with a knife. Although both Ron and Eddie agreed that she had an amazing right hook.

Ron was learning much more quickly. His abilities at hand to hand combat were quickly progressing. While not as accurate as Hermione, he was rapidly learning how to use a "Muggle Wand" or gun.

* * *

"Uncle Ollie?"

"Yeah?"

"I wanted to ask you something," Harry said carefully.

"Go ahead," said Uncle Ollie. There was an unreadable look upon his face.

"If I-if I were to go into the… family business, would you be upset with me?"

Uncle Ollie put his head into his hand. "Connor and I need to agree that you're ready first. You need a codename and a uniform as well."

"Redhood. I've already decided on Redhood," said Harry. "I have some ideas on what weapons I want to have on me, but I haven't been able to decide anything about the uniform."

"Do you want to join the Titans as well?" Ollie asked, sarcasm showing through.

"The opportunity to annoy Mia every weekend is very tempting, but no," he said. "But I think Ron, Hermione and I will continue to be a team. They've stood by me when nobody else would. Hell, they've gone with me into fights we couldn't possibly win. There's nobody else I'd rather have watching my back."

"They don't know the first thing about fighting."

"Not yet, but they will. Hermione's father did a lot of classified things before he became a dentist. One of his old Black Ops mates has already started training the two of them. When I get back to Hogwarts, the three of us are going to train together, both physically and magically. Even if-even if they didn't get involved in the whole cape thing, Voldie would still be gunning for them. At least with this training, they'll stand a chance."

"Have you told them about-"

"No. I haven't even told them any of your names. We've been writing letters to each other in code using references that most people wouldn't get. I couldn't have told them about you if I wanted. There's too much of a chance for mail being intercepted to put that much information in."

Uncle Ollie nodded. "I want to meet these two during Christmas break, test them myself. If I think they're up to snuff I won't object to you forming this team."

"Thanks," said Harry.

* * *

Ron waited patiently for everybody else to go to be before he made his move. Those Muggle wands would only be of so much use in a fight.

He found his father in the kitchen. Arthur Weasley had obviously just come off a long day of work. It was now or never.

"Dad."

"Ron, you should be in bed."

"I need to talk to you about something," said Ron. "It's important."

Arthur motioned for Ron to sit. "Yes, son?"

"You were the one to inherit the family sword, right?" His father nodded. "I need you to teach me how to use a sword."

"It's too dangerous. Your mother would-"

"I don't care what Mum would do to me," said Ron. "You're the only person who can teach me how to use a sword. I know Bill's going to inherit it, but I don't need the Weasley sword."

"This is because of Harry, isn't it."

Ron gave him a hard look, refusing to answer.

Arthur nodded, as if to himself. "The Prewitt family sword is generally given to the youngest son. It's a tradition dating from right around when the Romans started to conquer Britain. It was a way for them to provide for their son without having to him an inheritance. I think it would be proper for you to inherit that sword."

* * *

Ding-Dong!

Connor closed the book he was reading. Standing up, he stretched for a moment. Then he walked to the door.

"Can Harry come out and play?"

"Hi Luna," said Connor. "I think Harry's studying. Why don't you wait in the living room while I go get him."

"Alright," said Luna.

* * *

Luna sat on Harry's bed. It was a rather nice room. Harry was scurrying around, trying to clean up. Her eyes fell upon the bookshelf.

A second later she was at the bookshelf. Below the bookshelf, on the desk were Muggle history books. Most of the books on the shelf were Hogwart's texts, but some were infinitely more interesting. Her eyes landed on a grouping of books.

"May I borrow some of your books?"

"Huh? Which ones?" said Harry, trying desperately to put his laundry into a hamper.

"A Healer's Guide to Spells and Potions," said Luna. "I had originally planned on becoming a Healer, but then Daddy published one of my articles in the Quibbler."

"Sure," said Harry. "Borrow as many of the books on healing as you want."

Luna happily took the first two volumes from the shelf. "I'll return them as soon as I'm done reading them."

"There's no rush," said Harry.

* * *

"Sirius, what are you doing?"

"Remember how Harry mentioned his cousins were teaching him how to fight like a muggle?"

"Yes. What does that have to do you tearing through the house?"

"His cousin Connor was teaching him how to use a bow, a dagger, a sword, and hand-to-hand fighting techniques."

"And?"

"There are several weapons that the head of the Black family and the heir of the family use. Aha! Here they are. I knew they were in this room, Remus."

"What about the Potter family sword?"

"Destroyed during the war against Grindelwald. And anyway, Harry is my heir as well. I was thinking about giving it to him for his birthday."

"How are you going to get it to him? Somehow I don't think it would go over very well through the mail."

"I have my ways."

"So you're going to apparate to the Colonies again and turn into a dog until you meet up with Harry."

"Shut up, Remus."

* * *

"So what do you plan to do after you get out of Hogwarts?" asked Connor

"I already have a job," said Luna. "I write a column for a weekly publication."

Harry sat down next to Luna at the dinner table. "Your father decided to give you your own column? I'm assuming it's on the same subject as your original article."

Luna nodded. "Both Daddy and his superiors liked it."

"I thought most of the people who worked for the Quibbler did so for free," said Mia.

"Oh, that's just if it's a one time thing," explained Luna. "There's an editor and several journalists who are paid. Then there are people who send in articles. Unless you're hired by the Quibbler, you don't get paid for anything published in the paper."

"Oh," said Mia.

"I don't get paid very much at all anyway. Only couple pounds per article, and that money is all going into my account."

"There's no way you could survive on that," said Mia. A quick jerk of Harry's head was the only thing that kept her from continuing that line of questioning.

* * *

After Luna had left for the evening and Mia had headed off to Titans Tower, Harry and Connor had retreated to the basement for training.

"So why does Luna think she'll be able to survive on only a couple pounds per week?"

Harry sighed. "Uncle Ollie's already explained the whole secret magical society thing, right?"

"Yes."

"Well, culturally, they're about sixty or so years behind the times. Luna probably expects to either be married by the time she graduates, or soon thereafter."

"And that's legal."

"So long as the girl is fifteen and the boy seventeen, they don't even need parental consent," said Harry. "And most women become housewives anyway. Hermione went on an eleven-day rant about this two years ago. I still remember the statistics she found."

"So what are the statistics?"

"Give me a minute," said Harry. "63 of women are married or engaged within a year of graduating from school without ever holding a job. 16 of the remaining women get jobs, then quit once they are married. 17 of women both get married and hold jobs. 3 get jobs and never marry. The other 1 never work or get married, choosing instead to live upon kindness of their families."

"And nobody has a problem with this?"

"The occasional girl from a non-magical family will object, but most don't care," shrugged Harry. "I mean, I know of one girl who's going into her sixth year who's already engaged. Katie and I are on the Quidditch team together. A lot of the Slytherin girls have been betrothed since childhood. Flint had a wife before he graduated. It's a well known fact that Malfoy and Parkinson are going to marry sometime in June right before Seventh year."

"And if you have a daughter? Do you really want her to live in a society like that?"

"I wouldn't really care," said Harry. "There is nothing to stop a woman from getting any job she wanted. It's just that most women were brought up to become housewives. There are quite a few prejudiced arses, but they care about blood purity, not whether or not a woman works. I'd be a thousand times more worried about one of my enemies coming after any children I have than whether or not any daughter I have could get the job they wanted."

Harry shook his head. "It's not like women belong to their husband or father or brother. Witches as a whole seem to prefer the role of caregiver. The magical community did away with laws that subjugated women six millennia ago. I mean, in a lot of the old families, only the eldest male can become head of the family and there are a few traditions concerning marriage, but that's about it."

"What sort of traditions?"

"Let's see, parents can arrange marriages for their children-generally the women of the family do this-but that's really only for pure-blood families who want to make an alliance or a good match. Then there are traditions that every couple does before marriage, no matter what their ancestry is. Well, unless the families agree not to do these traditions."

"They still have arranged marriages?"

"Yeah, but four out of five people are allowed to chose their own husband or wife. And you can't get divorced unless there was adultery or abuse or infertility involved. Either the woman or man can initiate divorce."

"What sorts of traditions are there?"

"Well, once it is agreed that a couple will marry, the father of the groom and the father of the bride meet," said Harry. "Although, since my father and grandfather are dead, I would meet with the father of the bride. Anyway, they meet and agree upon a bride price. The money is paid to the bride's family before the wedding. Then, the bride would make items for the household, to be brought with her on her wedding day as a dowry of sorts."

"Really?"

"Yeah," said Harry. "During that meeting between the families, it is also decided who will provide for any children the couple may have should no godparent be named."

"And there's nothing to keep a woman from attaining any job she wants?"

"Nope, nothing. Although most women who work are some sort of professional like a healer or a bureaucrat at the Ministry or in some of the more… feminine jobs like being a seamstress.

"I mean, Luna was seriously considering becoming a Healer but decided she liked writing better. Rita Skeeter is one of the most popular reporters around, and she's a single woman. And Fluer Delacour works for Gringotts bank. Hell, even after my mother and father were married, my mother continued on with her job.

"And there is a helluva lot of prejudice in the work place when it comes to blood-purity. I mean, it's so commonplace you couldn't get it printed in the paper if you wanted. Well, unless somebody was attacked."


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

"Superheroes? That's rubbish," said Ron. "Everybody knows they're just myths."

"No, they're not," said Hermione.

They were both seated at Hermione's kitchen table, taking a break. Hedwig had arrived minutes before. Hermione walked into the living room, grabbed a newspaper and turned to a page near the middle. She then handed the paper to Ron.

"Superheroes are very real," said Hermione. "They're like… Muggle Unspeakables. They have saved this planet a dozen times over, the last month or so alone. I mean, most of them stick to one city, but there are quite a few teams of them. We-ordinary people-only know them by codenames. A lot of them have powers of some sort. And not just magical powers."

Ron gaped at the paper in front of him. "Why haven't I-why have they-what-"

"It's quite simple, Ron," said Hermione. "The Wizarding world does not want to know that there are powerful Muggles running around who could take on a fully trained Wizard and win. They don't want to know that there are societies on other planets. They don't want to know that there are other dimensions. That is why Superheroes are passed off as rumor."

"What do you think he's saying with this letter?"

"I think… I think he's gotten mixed up in the whole Superhero thing somehow and wants us to get mixed up in it with him."

"But do we want to get involved in this?"

"Would you really let Harry get himself into trouble without us as backup?"

"I'll let you pick the-what do you call them?-codenames."

* * *

"What are you doing?"

"Testing," said Hermione. "I'll clean up whatever mess I make."

She aimed, pulled the trigger, then grinned. The target was completely unharmed, covered in blue paint.

"It worked!" she shrieked happily. "I can't believe it, it worked!"

"What worked?"

"The capsule," explained Hermione. "I was trying to find a way to replace a traditional bulled with something that would cover the object hit with a potion of my choosing without breaking the skin."

"You created it by yourself?" asked Eddie as he examined one of the capsules on the table next to Hermione.

"Yes," she said. "Now I just need to find a way to charm the gun so that it will always have ammo. Maybe there's a to way charm it to switch ammo depending upon what the person using it wants."

* * *

It had been a month and a half since Harry's arrival in the Colonies. His studies had been going quite well. He and Luna were officially boyfriend and girlfriend. Luna had taken to studying his books on healing during her time alone and occasionally her time with him. Luna still had not found a jackalope, much to her chagrin.

From what he'd heard from Hermione and Ron, they're studies with some man called Fyers was going just as well. Hermione was rather excited about something she'd invented. She wouldn't tell him what it was through letters, but had promised to tell on the train.

He and Uncle Ollie had agreed that if he was able to hold his own against Mia, he's be allowed to go on patrol with them after his fifteenth birthday. Harry had kept up with weapons training with Connor, but was now sparing on a regular basis with Mia and Uncle Ollie along with Connor.

Not wanting to go out that day, Harry and Luna were settled on a couch having a Star Wars marathon. Apparently, despite having a Muggle-Born father, Luna had never seen Star Wars. A fact which rather was rather disturbing to Harry. Even he had seen the trilogy.

* * *

"Are you sure he went to Star City?"

"Not really," explained Kyle Rayner. "But all evidence points to the West Coast. Worse comes to worse, I can stay with you until I catch him."

Connor rolled his eyes. Kyle, the last Green Lantern, was a rather good friend of his. "Just let me get my uniform and I'll help you search. Why don't you wait in the living room or something."

"Sure," said Kyle.

He walked into the living room and stopped short. A boy with messy black hair sat on the couch watching what could only be Empire Strikes Back by the sound of it. Well, unless it was a Star Wars parody. The boy had his arm around a blonde girl who looked to be… sewing something.

"Hi," said the boy. "One of Connor or Mia's friends?"

"Connor," said Kyle.

"Cool. I'm Harry and this is Luna."

"Congratulations," said the girl.

"Huh?"

"One and one makes three," she said, then turned back to the television.

"Wha-"

Harry gave him a helpless sort of shrug. "Are you staying for dinner?"

"I think so. Why?"

"It's my turn to cook," he said. "Hope you like meatloaf."

"Ready to go," said Connor. "Luna, kick Harry if he does anything your father would hurt him for doing."

"Yes Connor," said Luna. She then elbowed Harry, hard.

"What was that for?" demanded Harry.

"Daddy said he'd cut off the hand of any boy who ever touched me." Luna paused, obviously thinking. "Of course, Daddy would probably castrate you, rip your intestines out through your nostrils, then cut off your fingers one by one if he knew what we'd done."

"Uh Luna, what have you and Harry done?" asked Connor.

"We kiss a lot and Harry touched my breast once, but it was an accident," she said, not even attempting to lie.

"Right," Connor said slowly, ignoring the shade of red Harry was turning. "Kick Harry if he tries to go any farther than you two have gone already."

"Yes Connor."

"Don't I get a say in this?" demanded Harry.

"No," Connor and Luna said in unison.

"Right then," Harry said meekly. "I don't have a problem with that."

As they left the house, Kyle said, "Who was that?"

"My cousin Harry and his girlfriend," said Connor. "Dad is Harry's legal guardian."

"And that Luna girl?"

"One of Harry's classmates. Very sweet girl, if a little… strange."

* * *

"What was that about?" Harry asked after the two men left the house.

"Promise not to tell," said Luna.

"Sure."

"Actions reserved for marriage bed were premature," she said. "But she should be the one to tell, not me. If she finds out, she'll be mad. I didn't know that he was ignorant of the fact."

"What fact?"

As if explaining to a small child, Luna repeated, "One and one makes three."

"Huh-Oh. Oooh," said Harry. He had learned to accept that he would probably never figure out how Luna knew what she knew. It was better for his sanity that way. "Hopefully he won't figure out what you meant until after his bird tells him she's preggers."

* * *

"So what potion are you planning on loading your gun with?" asked Ron.

"Draught of Living Death," she said. "I'm hoping to find a way to make the doses in the capsules change with a thought. Actually, I was thinking that we should carry or have backup reserves of some useful healing potions and antidotes, and things like veritaserum and polyjuice potion."

"Sounds like a good idea to me. You don't expect me to make the potions, do you?"

"Of course not," she said. "You'd probably blow up the house and turn everybody chartreuse at the same time."

* * *

"After Mummy died, Daddy started to teach me self defense," said Luna. "He'd just started to work at the Quibbler and was very sad about Mummy going to the other side."

"Really? Your father knows how to fight?" said Harry.

"He was in law enforcement."

Return of the Jedi had just ended and Harry and Luna were in the kitchen making dinner. The dress Luna was making sat on the kitchen table, well away from the food.

"I'm not very good," continued Luna. "I could never win against somebody like Green Arrow, but I can disarm any Muggle or Wizard who doesn't have much physical training. Daddy just taught me what to do if I was cornered and couldn't win with magic."

Harry put the meatloaf in the oven and started on the salad. "When I'm done with this, why don't you show me what you can do."

"Alright," she said.

Luna was not as good as he was. There was definite potential though. Harry was quite sure that if she managed to disarm just about any wizard or witch short of an Auror, Luna would win. A rather comforting fact.

Maybe he could help teach Luna a little bit more. What if a Death Eater came after her just because she was dating him? Maybe he could talk Mr. Lovegood into continuing to teach Luna. Yes, he could do that.

She already knew more than a lot of superheroes with powers. They tended to rely on their abilities far too much. Especially the ones with magic.

"Haven't seen that move in a while."

"Hullo Mr. Queen," said Luna, neatly ducking under Harry's arm.

"Hi Uncle Ollie."

"What are you two doing?"

"Harry asked me to show him what Daddy had taught me," she said.

"Ah," said Ollie. "How long until dinner?"

"It should be done in," Harry looked at his watch. "Three minutes."

* * *

"What are you making, anyway?" asked Mia.

"A gown," said Luna. "I've already finished the chemise and the bodice. I still need to make a belt, gloves, cloak, and boots to go with it."

"Is it a Halloween costume or a costume for a party?" asked Kyle.

"No," said Luna, clearly looking confused. "It's for a-well I'm not really sure what it's for yet, but I'll know when I'm supposed to wear it."

Harry glanced at a clock. "When does your father want you home?"

"Ten minutes ago," she said. "But Daddy's in the middle of an unexpected meeting. I shouldn't start home until fourteen minutes from now."

* * *

Harry walked with Luna to the door of the hotel room. When they reached the room, Harry paused.

"Luna, I wanted to speak to your father about something," he said.

"I'll go tell Daddy," she said, walking into the room.

A couple minutes later, a man walked out. He was tall with dark hair and blue eyes. Rather muscular as well. Harry fought the urge to run.

"What do you want?" demanded Mr. Lovegood.

"Uh-uh-Lu-uh," Harry managed to say. "Uh-Luna said you started teaching her self defense."

"What of it?"

"I was thinking, what with the world being the way it is right now," said Harry. "That maybe you should continue these lessons. A-and I'm going to leave now. Bye."

* * *

Jake blinked at where the boy used to be. That Harry fellow was a rather fast runner.

"Oh poo," said Luna, peeking around her father. "You scared him away."

* * *

Harry burst into the brownstone, slamming the door shut. He leaned against it, trying to catch his breath. Slowly, he slid to the ground.

"Do I want to know?" asked Ollie.

"Luna… big… scary…"

"What?"

Finally having caught his breath, Harry said, "Luna's father is huge! And scary. I've mentioned the scary thing, right? Because this guy looks like he could take Batman. And he used to do something with law enforcement."

Ollie shook his head, a smile apparent. "That frightening, huh?"

"The muscles on his arm were bigger than my head!"

"It couldn't have been that bad. You probably thought he was scarier than he was because you kiss his daughter on a regular basis."

"No, he really was that big," said Harry. "And even if he wasn't, Mr. Lovegood and Sirius were partners back before Sirius was thrown in jail. I don't know what they did. According to Sirius, he couldn't tell me because he signed this contract, but whatever they did was really dangerous."

"How can you be sure?"

"Because, my father was an Auror, a Dark Wizard catcher. From what both Sirius and Professor Lupin have said, what Sirius used to do is far more dangerous than what an Auror does."

"And now he's the editor of a magical tabloid."

"Actually, I'm pretty sure that the Quibbler isn't just a tabloid," said Harry. "The articles Luna writes are completely true, even if they're passed off as nonsense by wizards. I don't think that the Quibbler is as unreliable as it seems. Maybe they use it to pass coded messages or something."

* * *

"Well?"

"Well what?" demanded Hermione.

"Have you figured out secret name thingies for us yet?"

"Fine! How about Ozma and Tip?" said Hermione.

"Why those names?"

"They're characters, Ron. Ozma is princess of Oz and Tip is… another character. It's short for Tippetarius."

"What's Oz?"

"Another world in Muggle novels. Really, we should think of our own names."

"Like what?"

"I dunno. A lot of capes pick their names based on things like animals or colors or personal things. Personally, I think we should use the names of Wizards from the past that we admire. Like Artemisia or Maeve."

"What. So I should call myself Sawbridge?"

Hermione laughed. "The guy who conquered a river troll? It does seem appropriate."

"Maybe we should take the names of people in old legends," suggested Ron.

"Oh, maybe I can go as the Brown Lady," said Hermione. "That's what they call the ghost that supposedly haunts Raynham Hall."

"Us wizards have a legend about the Blue Shadow. He would fight to protect those who could not defend themselves."

"Never heard of him before."

"It's a really ancient story. From before the Roman conquest."


	16. Chapter 16

This is probably the last update for a while. About a week, I think. I have three papers due, three finals, and probably another paper as well. I hate finals week. Anyway, this will have to do for a week.

* * *

Chapter 16

"Whiskers, Trick, what are you two doing on the thirty first?"

"Nothing," said Hermione. "That's Harry's birthday. What are you planning?"

"Remus and I though we could apparate over to where Harry's staying," explained Sirius. "I'm sure we could take the two of you as side-alongs. Harry already said that he didn't think his family was planning anything. I think his girlfriend is counting on spending the day with him, though."

"He mentioned that he was seeing somebody," said Hermione.

"Wouldn't tell us the bird's name though," said Ron.

"Luna Lovegood," said Remus. He was standing in the doorway to the living room.

Hermione nodded. "That explains the list of people who have teased her. Harry's planning something, I assume."

"Those people will be high on the prank list, from what I gathered," said Remus.

"L-loony Lovegood. Harry is dating Loony Lovegood?" Ron seemed to be in shock.

"How can you call her that?" demanded Hermione. "I know she's strange, but that's no reason to call her names!"

"But she's just Loony Loveg-"

SLAP!

Ron clutched his cheek as Hermione stalked from the room. Remus shook his head and walked out. Sirius gave an annoyed sort of sigh.

"Harry likes her. A lot."

* * *

Mr. Tavi

Miss Whiskers and Mr. Trick have decided that they are rather fond of the Brown Lady and the Blue Shadow. However, since the so-called superheroes are only rumors, this is only speculation.

Miss Whiskers would like to ask Mr. Tavi what he intends to do at the end of July. Mr. Moony and Mr. Padfoot seem to be planning something of the party variety at Mr. Tavi's place of residence. Miss Whiskers also believes that current and former members of the club will attend said party. Mr. Moony believes that Mr. Tavi's significant other and family should be invited to the event. But Mr. Tavi did not hear that from Miss Whiskers.

Mr. Trick would like to apologize for any slight given to Mr. Tavi's significant other. Mr. Trick also sincerely promises to never refer to Mr. Tavi's significant other as "Loony" again and will gladly help in the punishment of those who taunt said significant other.

Miss Whiskers and Mr. Trick

* * *

Harry sighed and shook his head. Ron could be so closed-minded sometimes. At least he had apologized. Although that was probably at Hermione's order.

A party. He was rather surprised at that. Best to go warn the others that the house was going to be host to a group of wizards on the thirty-first.

* * *

Luna had completed the rest of the dress rather quickly. The boots, gloves, belt, and cloak were not yet made, but that was alright. She was sure that they would not yet be needed.

She was at the fabric store once more. Her eyes caught a piece of sheer cloth. It was a pale smoky color that shimmered when the light hit it. It would go with her dress perfectly. Then her gaze fell on another piece of cloth, rust colored but obviously made of the same material. She grabbed both and headed to the fabric cutter.

A flash of blue made her stop short. It was a pretty periwinkle. Without a second thought she picked it up as well. She wasn't sure why, but the rust and periwinkle colored cloths had called out to her.

She put the cloth down on the table. When it was her turn, she said, "Six yards each please."

On her way out of the store she picked up spools of thread and ribbons that went well with the various pieces of cloth she'd already picked up along with an embroidery hoop.

* * *

"They're throwing me some sort of party," explained Harry. "I'm not sure what they're planning, but it's going to be here and Hermione made it clear that I was to invite you along with Luna to the party."

"So Hermione, Ron and who else are going to be coming?" asked Uncle Ollie.

"Sirius and Remus. I think that's it."

* * *

"What are you making?" asked Harry.

He and Luna had decided to spend the day inside, most likely due to the rain outside. The television was on, a movie called Labyrinth on the screen. Harry still wasn't sure why Luna wanted to watch it. That Sarah girl was beyond spoiled.

There were several pieces of sheer brown cloth on the table. Four large ovals and at least as many smaller ovals just as wide as the bigger ones, but a foot or so shorter. There were several circles of cardboard with brown ribbon wrapped around them on the table as well. Each of the ovals had small brown stitches around the edges, obviously Luna's work.

One of the smaller ovals was in an embroidery hoop. Luna was carefully pulling a piece of ribbon on a needle through the cloth in the hoop.

"Making a veil," she said.

"Why a veil?" asked Harry. "And why that color?"

"It's not for me," she said. "I wouldn't wear brown, it doesn't look good on me. And why wear a mask when the Brown Lady could wear a veil?"

"The Brown Lady?" Harry's voice cracked.

"Oh yes. She'll be here soon. I'll give it to her then."

"Do you know who the Brown Lady is?"

"Why the ghost of Raynham Hall of course."

"I-of course."

They were silent after that. Luna watching the movie while she embroidered and Harry thinking about what had been said.

Luna had known about Moody. She'd known about Connor's friend knocking up his girl. There had been a couple other incidents as well. Incidents where Luna had known things she shouldn't have.

But how did she do it? Did he even want to know how she did it? Luna had a way of knowing things she shouldn't. But he lived in a world where myths were reality. He wouldn't ask. Harry really wasn't sure he wanted to know. It was just something he should accept.

Luna took the cloth out of the hoop. Harry watcher her, unable to get into the movie. There were seven pieces of ribbon that trailed out. They were sewn in to make a complicated pattern. Luna pulled on the ribbons carefully. A portion of the cloth began to bunch together almost like a pouch. When it had gathered to a certain point, Luna stopped. She tied off the ribbon, a smile on her face.

The cloth was covered with symbols Harry faintly remembered from some of Hermione's arithmancy homework. Harry could clearly see that the pouch type gathering of cloth was meant to secure around the head with the rest of the cloth trailing down.

Luna put the cloth on. The ribbons gathering the cloth ran from her forehead to the bas of her skull. The loose cloth reached her nose in the front and fell to her waist in the back.

Harry blinked. What on earth? He knew it was Luna under the veil, but he couldn't for the life of him make out her face.

"Can you see my face?"

"No," said Harry. "Is it supposed to be like that?"

"Yes. Try to take it off."

Harry reached out to touch the veil. Whenever his hand came close, a breeze seemed to blow in out of the way. Even when trying to pin the cloth against her skin, it managed to evade capture. Never once did it reveal anything above the nose. Harry attempted to pick it up from the top, but somehow he couldn't get a grip on the material.

Luna removed the veil. "I wasn't sure it was going to work. I've never tried a project combining arithmancy with ancient runes before."

"You're giving these to the Brown Lady?"

"Of course," said Luna.

"Can you even see through the veil? There's a lot of ribbon in front of the eyes."

"It's completely transparent to the wearer," said Luna. "It will obscure the face to the point where it is unidentifiable and it cannot be removed by anybody but the wearer."

"This is amazing," said Harry. "I'm sure Herm-the Brown Lady will love it."

"When I'm done with them, I'm going to have Daddy charm them to be able to resist damage from all elements and tearing, ripping, cutting, that sort of thing. The charm isn't that hard, but it's a restricted spell."

"Restricted? Why would it be restricted?"

"Because it would make clothe merchants obsolete." Luna shrugged. "There's a lot of things that have been restricted for economic reasons."

"I didn't know that. Are they only restricted in the UK or everywhere?"

"The UK. In the Colonies, they don't care what you do most of the time. There are only a couple things you could be tried for."

"Why didn't I know that?"

"Because then everybody would want to live in the Colonies. Well, every Dark Wizard, anyway. The government can only punish you for killing, torture, theft, revealing the magical world to non-magical people, using magic before you take your OWLs, and slavery, and that's only in certain circumstances. Duels are legal here. So is enforcing a life debt by having the one in debt be a slave to their savior until the debt is paid off."

"I-wow." Harry shook his head. "At least that explains why so many people use magic openly in this country."

"The country was founded on the idea of freedom, after all. And most of the magical people here are descended from criminals escaping from various wizarding governments and criminals too horrible to house in Azkaban or who commited crimes one could not justifiably be sent to Azkaban for."

"Why did we never cover this in History of Magic?"

"Binns is in love with a Goblin and feels the need to glorify her people."

"Right." Harry stretched the word into syllables. Sometimes he worried about Luna.

* * *

Miss Whiskers and Mr. Trick

Mr. Tavi's uncle would like to know when members of the club will arrive. Also, Mr. Tavi's uncle would like to know how many guests to expect and how long they will stay for. The uncle of Mr. Tavi has promised to make special chili. Miss Whiskers and Mr. Trick are requested to bring milk with them. Chili is very spicy.

The significant other of Mr. Tavi will be there at the end of July. Mr. Tavi's significant other has an amazing surprise for the ghost of Raynham Hall. Perhaps they would enjoy doing the-girltalk-please note Mr. Tavi's shudder of fear.

Mr. Tavi

* * *

"May I borrow this?" Harry motioned toward one of the completed veils. During the day, Luna had managed to complete five veils and was more than halfway done with a sixth.

"Give it back to me tomorrow," said Luna.

"Sure-oh my family is having a birthday party for me on the thirty-first. You're invited."

* * *

"Hey Mia, comere," said Harry.

"What's up?"

Connor and Mia were the only ones in the training room. Ollie was off on a date with Dinah. At least that's what Harry thought he was doing. He hadn't really been paying attention that morning.

Harry handed Mia the veil. "Try this on. The short part goes in front."

Mia looked at it, raised an eyebrow, then said, "Wasn't Luna making this earlier?"

"Yeah. Try it on."

"Alright," sighed Mia. "But I don't know how you expect me to be able to see with this thing on."

Mia put the veil on, then froze. "How many spells did Luna put on this thing?"

"What's going on?" asked Connor.

"I'll explain in a minute. Connor, try to take it off Mia," said Harry.

After several moments of unsuccessful attempts, Connor gave up. He sat down on a bench.

"What is this?" Mia demanded again.

"Connor, can you even connect the face with Mia?"

He shook his head. "It looks too blurry."

"Isn't it great!" said Harry. "Luna made it. And before you ask again, the only magic is in what Luna embroidered on it. The veil is transparent to the wearer, cannot be removed except by the person wearing it, and nobody can see what the wearer looks like."

Mia took the veil off. "Why did Luna make it?"

"It's for Hermione," said Harry. "Or should I say the Brown Lady. Apparently, Hermione decided that her codename should be one shared with a ghost. Anyway, Luna's already finished five of these things."

"But they're so delicate," said Connor.

"Not once Mr. Lovegood puts some spells on them," grinned Harry.

"Does Luna know about…?"

Harry shrugged. "No idea. I never bothered to ask. Maybe, maybe not. Hell, I'm still not sure how she knew that Crouch was posing as Moody." Harry shook his head. "I wouldn't worry about whether or not she knows. Nobody would actually believer her if she decided to spill. Most of our classmates call her things like Loony Lovegood according to Ginny."

"They call her Loony?" said Mia, horrified. "Do they actually call her that to her face?"

"Yeah." Harry smirked. "Let's just leave it at, when I'm done with them, they'll learn why it's unwise to cross a Marauder. They'll be wishing I had just turned their skin green."

"Wait, your friend Hermione decided on a codename?" said Connor. "I thought Dad said you weren't allowed to be on a team with them until he approved."

"Oops," said Harry, trying to give them his best who-me look.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Eddie Fyers had quickly come to the conclusion that the children had some real potential. Their loyalty to Harry was commendable, although Eddie wasn't sure if it was warranted. He would wait until he met the boy to decide.

Hermione may have looked and acted like a member of Future Librarians of the United Kingdom, but that was mostly a façade. The girl was a crack shot with those guns of hers. Her hand-to-hand abilities left something to be desired, but she was learning. Slowly but surely learning. Along with some secret project she was working on with Ron and Harry, she was developing ways to combine projectile weapons and magic. Admittedly, Hermione sometimes froze up and started to over think things in the middle of the fight, but they were working on that.

Ron's progress was amazing. While Hermione excelled in academia and science, Ron excelled in martial arts, using modern weapons, and oddly enough, using a sword. For all that he acted the fool, Eddie was quite sure that within a year or two, Ron would become one of the more dangerous people on the planet. In the top thousand or so. If magic was added into the mix, that is.

The kids had already told him that they would be out of the country Sunday through Tuesday of next week. Something about Harry's fifteenth birthday, a party, and the final phase of a plan. With them gone for three days there was little to do. Maybe he could visit Connor. He missed having the kid around.

* * *

Mr. Tavi

Mr. Trick would like to inform Mr. Tavi that the final phase will commence on the last day. The club will arrive the day before and will stay until the day after. Mr. Padfoot's cousin decided to come as well. She was in the same class as Mr. Trick's second oldest brother.

Mr. Trick would also like to ask if Mr. Tavi is really dating the daughter of the moon? The sister of Mr. Trick will be crushed.

Mr. Trick.

* * *

"Uncle Ollie, I just got a reply from Ron," said Harry. "They'll get here on the thirtieth and leave on the first of August. And they're bringing Sirius's cousin with them."

Uncle Ollie nodded. "Where are they going to sleep?"

Harry shrugged. "I've shared a room with Ron when I visited his house and we live in the same dorm at school. And we have two guest rooms, right?"

"One," said Connor. "Both Dinah and Roy are coming. One of the rooms is Roy's. And Lian will be sleeping with Mia. Actually, if Mia doesn't mind, Hermione could stay with her as well. If Mr. Lupin and Mr. Black don't mind, they could share a room."

"But what about Sirius's cousin?" asked Harry. "According to the letter she's in her early twenties. I'm not sure she's appreciate being stuffed into a room with Hermione, Lian, and Mia."

"The couch is a foldout," said Mia. "Put her on that."

"Your godfather is in contact with his family?" asked Uncle Ollie.

"Not all of them, just Tonks and her mother," said Harry. "I asked him last night. They're the only members of his family he actually likes. Tonks is an Auror if I remember correctly."

"Luna isn't staying here as well, is she?"

"Nope," said Harry. "She's coming by on Sunday and Monday, but we already agreed that Tuesday was for catching up with people."

* * *

Mr. Trick

Mr. Tavi would like to respectfully inform Mr. Trick that his sister bears a striking resemblance to Mr. Tavi's mother. Yes, Mr. Tavi is courting the daughter of the moon. Did Mr. Trick know how terrifying the daughter of the moon's father is? Much more frightening than the offspring of Aragog and Snape.

So long as Mr. Padfoot's cousin does not mind sleeping on the couch, there is plenty of space for her. Mr. Padfoot and Mr. Moony will need to share a room, though. Mr. Trick will be with Mr. Tavi and Miss Whiskers will be with Mr. Tavi's cousin.

The daughter of the moon has volunteered to make desert, so the kitchen will be commandeered for the day before. If anybody wants to make food, it would be best to do so before arrival.

Mr. Tavi

* * *

"Kyle, right?" said Harry. "You find that criminal yet?"

Connor's friend gave him a look. "No, I haven't. So are you…?"

"Uncle Ollie has strict standards, but sometime within the next week or two, I'll be joining the family business," said Harry. "Luna didn't bother you, did she? Sometimes she forgets what is and is not appropriate. She didn't mean anything by what she said."

"That's alright," said Kyle. "What was she saying, anyway? Couldn't make heads or tails of it."

"Nothing important." Harry shrugged. "Gotta go. I'm taking Luna out dancing."

* * *

When Harry had first entered the wizarding world, he'd thought nothing of their music other than it was odd not to hear the sound of the electric guitar. It was not until he was older that he realized that wizarding music consisted almost entirely of classical music, folk songs, and jazz.

The Weird Sisters and all those other popular bands played jazz. And everybody knew how to swing dance along with the more traditional dances... even if they weren't very good at it.

While Harry was not the best dancer in comparison to some of his classmates, so long as it wasn't a waltz or tango, he was more than capable. When he had heard of a swing dancing competition Harry had known instantly that it was a rather good idea for a date.

While hosted by one of the local churches, it had been made quite clear that the competition was open to anybody in the city. He and Luna had decided to dress the part just for the fun of it.

Harry wore dress shoes (leftover from the Yule Ball), nice slacks and a button up shirt. Luna wore something much more subdued than usual, a pale blue low waisted dress with matching blue heels. Her long hair was pulled back in a chignon, the butterbeer top necklace and radish earling left in her room.

* * *

Luna let out a small giggle as they did the Lindy Hop. After the first hour of dancing the competition had begun. It was rather obvious that Luna and Harry were the only two people below the age of twenty who actually knew what they were doing.

More than two thirds of the competitors were already out of the contest. They sat off to the edge watching. Luna, Harry decided, was a very good dancer. He was rather grateful for the exercise he had been doing this summer. If not for that, Harry was quite sure he would have itred out by this point.

Another two couples were disqualified. The song changed. Harry and Luna easily switched to the Shag. If they wanted to win the competition, they couldn't do the same dance the entire night.

A couple minutes later, there were only nine couples on the dance floor. Other than Harry and Luna, a pair of college students and a pair that looked to be in their mid to late twenties, everybody ion the floor seemed to be in their sixties or seventies. The music switched to something slower.

Harry gave Luna a quick kiss and asked, "Do you know the Balboa?"

A nod was all Harry needed to draw Luna close. Harry had to say that he rather liked this song, if only because it gave him an excuse to hold Luna so close.

Half an hour, two Foxtrots, a Boogie-woogie, and a Lindy Hop later, there were only two couples left on the floor. Harry smirked to himself. Those college students didn't stand a chance. They just knew how to swing dance because it was a fad, he and Luna had practically been raised on it.

"Do you know the Cowboy Jitterbug?" asked Luna.

Harry thought for a minute. "Which is it?"

"It's called the Lake Charles Slide as well. Or the Cajun Jitterbug or the Whiskey River Jitterbug," Luna explained.

"Yeah," said Harry. "Fred and Angelina do that one a lot. Angelina loves it. He taught me the basics. Why?"

"They've only done three different dances," said Luna.

Harry nodded. When the song changed one more, they began to do the dance Luna had suggested. He understood Luna's idea. The other couple was just as good as they were, but they didn't know as many different types of dances. Hopefully the judges would pick the couple that knew more variations.

The song ended. Since no other song came on, Harry and Luna relaxed. Luna leaned against Harry, a little out of breath. Harry put his arm around her shoulders.

Three people sitting behind a table conversed for a moment then called the announcer over. The announcer nodded then, taking a slip of paper walked over to a microphone.

"The winners are," said the announcer. "Harry Potter and Luna Lovegood!"

* * *

"About my birthday," Harry said. "A person will be coming, but he's… he's not exactly a law abiding citizen."

"Sirius Black," said Luna. "Your Godfather."

"H-how did you-"

"He used to be Daddy's partner," said Luna. "Wait here."

Harry stood outside the hotel room, fighting the urge to run. Luna's father was the most frightening person he had ever met. At least he wouldn't have to speak to the man this time.

Luna came back out carrying a bag. "I'm staying at your place again tonight. Daddy is in London talking to his superiors."

"Does Uncle Ollie know?"

Luna nodded. "Daddy called him earlier today."

* * *

Harry put the trophy they had won on the kitchen table and said, "Luna and I are going up to my room."

"Keep the door open," said Ollie, not even bothering to look up from his paper.

Harry nodded and led Luna up the stairs. Luna took off her shoes and sat down on his bed. She fished through her bag and finally pulled out an old issue of the Quibbler. She handed the paper to Harry.

Harry glanced at it and finally said, "It's from July 1993."

"Read the article about the Grim sightings," said Luna

Harry shrugged and opened the paper to the correct page. He read the article once, paled, then read it again. "How did-" He looked for the author of the article "-Mr. Smyth know all this."

"You understood the code, then."

"It wasn't that hard if you knew what was going on," said Harry. "How did Mr. Smyth know this?"

Luna sighed. "Mummy used to work for the Department of Mysteries. That's where she and Daddy met. Daddy works in a different branch of the department."

"I knew it," said Harry. "I knew that there was more to the Quibbler than just some tabloid!" He stopped short. "Sirius used to work for the Department of Mysteries."

"They knew he was innocent but couldn't prove it," said Luna. She took a piece of parchment out of the bag. "This is a copy of the article that is going to be in the issue that comes out on July thirtieth."

Harry read through it. "Why an article on the mating habits of demon possessed birds? Mr. Smyth wrote this one as well."

"The code is difficult," Luna admitted. "It took me two years to figure it out."

* * *

Luna knew that she really shouldn't be explaining the code to Harry. But she couldn't help it. He deserved to know. And anyway, he would find out soon enough. There were usually three or four coded articles in each edition of the Quibbler, the rest was written by the staff of the Quibbler.

"It's a warning to all field agents that the Order of the Phoenix is active once more," said Luna. "Mr. Smyth is really Mr. Black. I'm not sure if he's still a field agent, but Mr. Black never stopped working for the Department of Mysteries."

"What's the Order of the Phoenix and why would the field agents need a warning?" asked Harry.

"An organization run by Professor Dumbledore," said Luna. "They say they fight Death Eaters, but really, they just bumble around. The warning is so that the agents will be able to get out of the way of their messing around."

"Are they really-"

Luna looked down, when she looked back at Harry her face was unusually serious. "They don't know what they're doing. They are not trained for this sort of thing. Instead of leaving it to the professionals, they go and get themselves involved in a war. They put themselves, civilians, and members of law enforcement in danger by their very actions. The Order of the Phoenix is made up of the worst sort of vigilantes."

Harry looked away. In that moment Luna realized that she had said something wrong. She watched as Harry became tense.

"And superheroes," he said, his voice dangerous. One wrong word and Luna was quite sure he would explode. "What do you think of them?"

"It depends," Luna said quietly. "The ones like Batman, Green Arrow, Superman, Wonder Woman, the ones who actually know what they're doing are a good thing. More often than not, they're the only thing standing between Earth and annihilation. But there are always people who take it too far."

Harry seemed to have relaxed. "So you don't mind vigilantes so long as they have proper training, and…"

"Follow the law," said Luna. "That one is very important. They need to hand lawbreakers over to the police so that they can face trial. And the vigilante has to follow the law himself."

He breathed a sigh of relief. "At least we agree on that. So these Phoenix people put others in danger how exactly?"

"They think that they're the only ones qualified to take on you-know-who and his forces," said Luna. "Even if the Ministry is denying his return, the DoM is still working against the Death Eaters. Their actions could ruin investigations that have been going on for months. Look at this!"

Luna passed him another parchment. "This is a copy of an article from this week's issue."

Harry read it. His brows furrowing, he read it again. "I got something about a rat and a cat, but that's it."

"You're getting better," said Luna. "The article says that one of the investigations was ruined by a Death Eater double agent. As a result the agent doing the investigation has lost the opportunity to capture a rat animagus suspected of murder. The agent also said that he may need to pull out soon because the double agent's actions may have brought him to you-know-who's attention."

Harry let out a string of curses that would have made Ron proud. After a couple minutes, he calmed down enough to talk. "Who do I need to talk to about getting a subscription to the Quibbler?"

Luna shrugged. "Me, I guess. Ten knuts an issue or you can order a year long subscription for one galleon, one sickle, and three knuts. That would be ten dollars and… thirty-nine cents, I believe. Or five point three two pounds."

"Give me a moment," said Harry. He got off the bed and began to fish around in his trunk. A minute or two later he closed the trunk. "I have three knuts and eighteen sickles."

"Your subscription will begin on the sixth of August," said Luna.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

"So how are we going to do this?"

"I have the coordinates for the aparition point," said Sirius. "You'll take the bags with you, I'll take Ron, and Remus will take Hermione."

Tonks nodded, turned, and tripped. Hermione and Remus winced as Tonks landed. With a sad shake of his head, Sirius handed Remus the paper with the coordinates and aparated away with Ron.

* * *

Harry sat on a couch, his animaus book in hand. He had quickly come to the conclusion that it was best if he stayed as far away from the kitchen as possible. Luna was scary when she was baking. He looked at his watch again. They would arrive within the hour.

Kyle had left the day before. He had found the criminal. The man was now at some police station somewhere.

Hearing footsteps, Harry said, "I wouldn't do that if I were you."

"It's my kitchen."

"Just remember, I tried to warn you." Harry shook his head. Uncle Ollie had no idea what he was getting himself into.

There was a loud crash followed by a hiss. Did Luna let in a cat or something? Harry didn't bother to look up as Uncle Ollie ran back out of the kitchen.

Harry smirked. "Told you so."

Uncle Ollie rubbed his shoulder as if it were sore. "That girlfriend of yours is a real spitfire."

"When are Dinah, Roy, and Lian arriving?"

"Just before dinner."

"So right around when Mia comes back from Titans tower."

Connor was at the Youth center at the moment. He had volunteered to take Harry's shift because of the arrival of his friends. Ollie had already announced that after Harry's friends arrived he would go help Connor out.

"Are you and friends going to be doing magic while I'm gone?"

"We can't," explained Harry. "There are standardized tests at the end of Fifth year called OWLs or Ordinary Wizarding Level. We can't legally use magic out of school until we complete them. But Remus, Sirius, and Tonks are all legal adults and crud. They might be using magic while they're here."

The doorbell rang. Harry calmly closed the book and got up to answer it. On the doorstep were Remus, Hermione, Ron, a woman with purple hair he didn't recognize and a grim like black dog.

"Hermione, what was your first complaint about Ron?"

"He had dirt on his nose," she said with a smile. "What did the three of us do in the second floor girl's toilet?"

"Brewed polyjuice potion," replied Harry. "You got the potion from Most Potente Potions. Apparently Lockhart will sign anything that stands still long enough. Good to see you guys again."

Harry stepped back from the door to let them in. "Uncle Ollie, they're here."

* * *

Hermione had not yet decided what to make of Harry's family. It was obvious that he was being treated well, had more than enough to eat, that sort of thing. And he seemed happy enough.

"This is Mia's room," explained Harry. "Hermione, you'll be staying here along with Lian."

Hermione nodded and put her bag down just inside the doorway. "Who's Lian?"

"Roy's daughter. She's five years old."

She nodded. Roy was Mr. Queen's first foster child according to Harry, and just as much Mr. Queen's son as Connor was.

"Ron, this is my room."

Harry opened a door. The room was about the same size as Mia's. A quick appraisal told Hermione all she needed to know about it. The furniture and linens were well made but simple. Something Harry would definitely prefer. He had books of magic and Muggle books spread out on the desk and shelves. Hedwig's cage stood near an open window. A little messy, but Harry was a teenage boy. There was a cot already set up for Ron.

"Wizard," said Ron. He dropped his bag on the cot.

"Uncle Ollie's room is on the third floor, so don't bother going up there," explained Harry as they passed another staircase. "Here's the guest room. Sirius, Remus, you two get this room."

"What about me?" asked Tonks.

"The couch. We don't have unlimited space, you know. We should say hello to Luna."

"She's here?" said Hermione. "Where?"

"In the kitchen. She kicked us all out right after breakfast."

Hermione was even less sure of what to make of Harry dating that… that Luna Lovegood girl. But Harry was her friend and dating Luna was better than lusting after Cho.

"Might as well see if I can get enough space to make some sandwiches," muttered Harry.

They trouped back downstairs. The others hung back while Harry and Hermione approached the kitchen.

They both stopped short. On the kitchen table was a pile of roast beef sandwiches. At least enough for everybody in the house. Luna was by the sink mixing pitcher of… was that lemonade? Her Long hair was held up in a bun by her wand. As she walked to the other side of the counter Hermione took in her outfit and fought the urge to wince. An unbuttoned chartreuse sweater with a rose colored knee length dress.

"Harry, could you put out plates and cups, please?" she said.

"No problem." He walked over to one of the cupboards. "Taking a break from baking?"

Luna shook her head. "The cake is in the oven. I'm not going to make the icing until the cake has cooled."

The others walked into the kitchen and grabbed seats at the table. "Uh… Luna I…"

"Hello Mr. Black," she said. Luna took a piece of parchment out of her pocket. "Daddy asked me to give this to you."

Sirius nodded. He read the parchment then stuffed it in his pocket. "Is your father doing alright?"

"Yes. He really likes his job as editor of the Quibbler."

"So you're working for the paper as well? Each issue has had one of your articles in it for the past two months," said Sirius.

Luna gave him a dotty sort of smile. "Daddy gave me a weekly column on Superheroes and Superhero activity."

"Really," said Hermione. Was that the sort of thing published in the Quibbler? "Who have you written about so far?"

"Green Arrow and all the people he's trained, the various Green Lanterns from Earth, Wonder Woman, Blue Beetle and Booster Gold, Starman, Sand, Beast Boy, and in the issue that comes out today there's an article on Catwoman and which side the law she's been on over the years." Luna sat down next to Harry. "Each column has two parts, a piece on the Superhero of the week, and a piece on how the various capes have saved the world, captured criminals, stopped alien invasions, that sort of thing, during the week."

At least Luna was writing something worthwhile, even if the wizarding world thought it nonsense. "What are you going to write about for next week?"

"Batman," she said with a smile. "I'll be covering the various members of the Bat family for the next couple of weeks. First batman, then the original Robin-he's going by Nightwing these days, then the original Batgirl. For the anniversary of his murder, the column will be dedicated to the second Robin the following week. After that I'll write about the third Robin. Then I think I'll write about Spoiler and the second Batgirl in one article. Maybe I'll do one about Azrael as well."

Hermione couldn't help but blink. She hadn't expected something so intelligent from the blonde. Then again, Luna was in Ravenclaw. Sure the girl believed in creatures that didn't exist, but it was obvious that the girl cared about current events. And was smart enough to realize that Superheroes were not just rumors.

The Daily Prophet completely discounted just about anything of importance in the Muggle world. She would have to take a second look at the Quibbler. If the editor was willing to publish things like this, maybe she should reconsider listing it as a tabloid.

"Is it possible to get a copy of the issue that came out today?" said Hermione.

"Of course," said Luna. She stood up and started to fish around in a large bag. A moment later she came back with a copy. "I finished reading it already. You can keep it if you want. I can get another copy from Daddy."

"If you want," said Harry. "Starting next week I'll send you my copy after I read it. I just ordered a subscription."

Hermione nodded absentmindedly. "Maybe. I think I'll talk to Mom about ordering one for ourselves."

* * *

After lunch Luna had kicked them out of the kitchen once more. They had retreated to the living room where Harry had shown them what he was working on. Remus, Sirius, and Tonks were going over the list of spells and potion he thought they should learn while Hermione and Ron were going over his list of people to prank.

"What did Luna make for the ghost of Raynham Hall?" Hermione asked.

"I'll be right back."

Harry fetched a box from his room. Once Mr. Lovegood had put the appropriate spells on the veils, Luna had given them to him to give to the Brown Lady. With Luna busy and the family out of the house, there wasn't going to be a much batter time. Sirius had already vouched for Tonks, saying that she had promised that nothing she heard or saw in the house would leave her lips.

"Here, try this on," said Harry, handing her one of the veils.

Hermione examined it for a moment, biting her lower lip. It was obvious that she knew exactly what it did. After a minute she put it on.

Harry gave a quick explanation of what it did while Ron stared and Remus tested it.

"I've seen this sort of thing before," Sirius said after a long moment.

Hermione took the veil off. "Where?"

"In old portraits," he explained. "Back in the tenth and eleventh centuries a lot of witches wore veils made in that style. Although they usually covered to the chin instead of the nose. They would embroider them with runes so that they could see through the material."

"Hmmm… Maybe if I find a dress pattern from…" Hermione smiled. "Tell Luna that the Brown Lady thanks her. This is a wonderful idea."

"What are you thinking?" asked Harry.

"Well the Brown Lady would probably wear a dress styled after wizarding fashions from a millennia ago." Hermione shrugged. "As would Redhood and the Blue Shadow."

"Somehow that seems fitting," said Harry.

"So long as there's no lace or frills, I don't care," said Ron.

"What are you three-" Tonks stopped when she noticed how Remus shook his head. "Never mind. I don't think I want to know."

"Impressive list," said Sirius. "How quickly do you want to learn all this?"

Harry shrugged. "During the school year, I guess. As long as it takes us to learn it. I mean, we do have OWLs and all. We need to study for those as well."

"Any idea on what you want to do after Hogwarts?" asked Tonks.

"Become an Auror," Harry and Ron said at the same time.

"Maybe a journalist," said Hermione. "Or I could write books."

"You could do both," suggested Harry.

"But this Auror thing," interrupted Tonks. "You both want to become Aurors? It's a lot of hard work. And you have to go to three years of school after Hogwarts."

Harry nodded. "It's what I want to do with my life."

"Me too," said Ron.

"Well you need to take Transfiguration, Potions, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Charms, and Herbology on a NEWT level and get no lower than Exceeds Expectations on each."

Ron and Harry shared a look. In that moment Harry knew that Ron was willing to follow him, even if it meant another two years of putting up with Snape.

"We'll do it."

"Well, I'll just need to send you two some useful books in those subjects for your OWLs," smiled Tonks. "There haven't been nearly enough applicants in the past couple of years. Madame Bones is rather upset about it. Who am I to not do what is necessary to help my future co-workers follow their dream? Especially in such a trying time."

"I do believe that Auror Tonks is right," said Remus. "And one must always do what an Auror says."

"So what can you tell me of the Order of the Phoenix?" asked Harry.

"I have no idea what you're-"

"I read the article by Mr. Smyth on the mating habits of demon possessed birds."

"I see your girlfriend has been telling you secrets," said Sirius. "Who else is in the house?"

"Only us and Luna."

Sirius glanced at the others, then said, "The Quibbler is controlled by the Department of Mysteries. Most of their articles cover things that are weird and relatively unknown or passed off as rumor, but true. There are a couple of articles each week that are written in code to tell field agents important information they might not be able to get otherwise."

"Then Luna is…" said Ron.

"Perfectly sane," said Harry. "She just doesn't see the world the same way we do."

Hermione was now looking through the Quibbler. She seemed to be both reading and listening to their conversation.

"Remus and I along with a few others were sent to infiltrate the Order and make sure they don't put too many people in danger," explained Sirius. "Damage control and all that."

"Who else? Tonks?" said Harry.

"And my partner," she said quietly. "We still haven't figured out why Moody joined."

"Is this article in code?" demanded Hermione, pointing to the article Luna had shown him two nights earlier.

"Yeah. Luna said that an agent's investigation was ruined by a double agent and that Voldemort might think that the agent is a spy."

"So Luna's been telling you what the code says," said Remus.

"Yeah, but I'm going to try to figure out the code for myself once I start getting it on a regular basis."

Hermione put the paper down. She picked up a blank piece of parchment and began to write a list. There was a line down the center of the parchment with what looked like Pros and Cons as a header for each side.

Harry and Ron shared a glance, then an eye roll. Rather typical Hermione. These lists were how she made many of her important decisions.

"But back to the Order," said Harry. "What does it do, exactly? I mean, I know that they're untrained civilian vigilantes that think they're the only solution to the Voldemort thing, but that's about it."

"They have a Death Eater spy," explained Remus. "We're not sure which side the spy is really on. And act on information they gather to help stop Voldemort."

"That's what I thought."

Harry sighed. He had little doubt that if he had found out about the Order before being trained by his relative, he would have been begging to join the Order. But being taught by Superheroes who actually knew what they were doing, Harry had learned quite a bit. Uncle Ollie had told him about several occasions in the past where amateur vigilantes had gotten people hurt or killed.

Hermione looked stopped writing and looked at her list. After a moment she stood up and walked to the kitchen calling out, "I'll be right back."

* * *

"Yes?" said Luna, looking up from her dinner preparations.

"If somebody wants an article published in the Quibbler, who do they need to talk to?"

Luna gave Hermione a long hard look. She had little doubt that Hermione had been told by Harry the true purpose of the paper.

After a moment, Luna said, "Mr. Jenkins is planning on retiring next month. Daddy has been looking for somebody to replace him. If you're interested in a fulltime job, I can arrange for an appointment."

"What does Mr. Jenkins cover?"

"He does two articles each week. One about current events and technology in the Muggle world and another on the injustices in the Wizarding world. Daddy will want all applicants to bring two articles on each subject that they wrote themselves."

Hermione nodded. "I'll get right to it. How much does it pay?"

"Two Galleons per article."

After Hermione left, Luna wondered exactly what the girl would write about. It was obvious that Hermione had little imagination, but perhaps that was for the best considering the position she wanted to apply for.

Luna was still surprised that Hermione had not questioned her on Jackalopes. Even if Hermione did start to believe the Quibbler, Luna still wanted to find one.


	19. Chapter 19

I know this is a little shorter than usual, but I just came home. I'm not sure when I'll be able to get on the computer again, so I just decided to post this. I promise that my next chapter will be extra long.

Chapter 19

"What about the final part of the animagus transformation?" asked Ron.

"Tuesday," said Sirius. "There are too many things that can go wrong to do it tonight. And we wouldn't want to interfere with Harry's birthday. We'll do it first thing on Tuesday."

"You five are so lucky we're out of my jurisdiction," said Tonks. "I couldn't arrest you for anything done here, even if it was against the law."

"Does that include Muggle objects with spells on them?" asked Hermione. "If I remember correctly, it's only illegal if you spell the object in Europe."

"That's right." Tonks looked at her, then winked and said, "There's no law about importing Muggle objects with spells on them into the UK."

"Really. That is interesting. Do you need paperwork to prove that it was imported?"

"Nope. But most don't even realize that so long as you claim it was imported, there's nothing to be done."

* * *

"Lovegood here."

"Daddy?"

"Are you alright, beeswax? Do you need me to pick you up?"

"I'm fine. Mr. Jenkins is retiring next month, right?"

"Why?"

"Have you filled the position?"

"No."

"Hermione Granger would like to apply. I told her I would get her an interview."

"Hermione Granger is…"

"One of Harry's best friends."

"Is she going to be in Star City any time soon?"

"She's already here for Harry's birthday. I believe she's leaving on Tuesday evening."

"Tuesday morning, nine thirty. I'll drop you off at Harry's then do the interview."

* * *

"Hermione?"

It was the first time Luna had left the kitchen since her arrival.

"Yes?"

"Daddy said nine thirty on Tuesday."

"Thank you."

Luna once more disappeared into the kitchen.

"What was that about?" asked Harry.

"I'm applying for a job with the Quibbler."

"Which writer is retiring?" said Sirius.

"Jenkins I believe."

"So, any suggestions?" asked Harry, motioning toward the lists.

"Can we make Malfoy sing show tunes all day?" suggested Ron.

"Don't see why not," said Sirius.

"Maybe something from Evita or Cinderella," said Hermione.

"Sleeping Beauty," insisted Tonks.

"That Once Upon a Dream song," said Hermione. "I think he needs to dress the part as well."

Both girls let out a giggle.

"Feel like sparring while the girls talk wardrobe?"

* * *

Dinah rang the doorbell once more, wondering where everybody was. The door opened after a moment. Luna-Harry's little friend-stood in the doorway. A stained apron covered a rose colored dress and chartreuse sweater.

"Sorry, I had to take something off the stove," she explained.

"Uh… no problem. Where are the others?"

"Mr. Black, Professor Lupin, Harry, and Ronald are in the basement. I think Harry and Ron are sparring. Hermione is interviewing Tonks about her work in Law Enforcement," explained Luna. "Mia is still in San Francisco and Connor and Mr. Queen are at the Youth Center."

"And they left you here to cook?"

"I volunteered."

Dinah nodded. "Do you need any help?"

"Can you mash potatoes?"

"So you and Harry are…"

"Dating," said Luna, starting the preparations for desert. "He's been my boyfriend for more than a month."

"And Tonks is?" said Dinah. "I know who the other four are, but Ollie didn't tell me about a Tonks."

"Mr. Black's cousin. She's a member of the… Metropolitan Police." Luna shrugged. "I think Mr. Black brought her along because both Harry and Ron want to join the police after school."

"And you don't have a problem with Harry wanting to enter such a dangerous career."

"No. Of course not. Daddy and Mr. Black were both in Interpol and Harry's father was a member of the Metropolitan Police." Luna brushed away a tear.

"What's wrong?" Dinah asked gently.

"It's my fault."

"What is?"

"I-I was to have a brother. He would have turned six two days ago." Luna shook her head. "He and Carrie would have been very happy together."

"Luna-"

"He didn't even have a chance. Mummy couldn't even conceive him. All because of me."

Trying to figure out what was going on, Dinah said, "You can't know that."

"Yes I can. They hurt Mummy and I was born and she couldn't have children anymore and Carrie won't even know what she missed."

"Who is Carrie and who hurt your mother?"

"Carrie Kelly. She's only a child right now, but in a couple years she'll be the fifth."

"Fifth what?"

"Robin."

"But who hurt your mother?"

"Riddle's minions," said an unfamiliar male voice. "Luna, why don't you take some lemonade down to the boys. I'm sure they'd appreciate it."

"Yes Mr. Black," she said in a hollow sort of voice.

Dinah examined the man in front of her while Luna took a pitcher and some cups from the fridge. She faintly recognized him from wanted posters a year earlier. Sirius Black. He was an escaped prisoner. But Ollie had vouched for him.

"I'm Sirius Black, Harry's godfather," he said. "And Jake Lovegood's former partner."

"Dinah Lance," she said. "Why would this Riddle person send anybody after Luna's mother?"

"Because Selene was brilliant. One of the best scientists the government had to offer. They tortured her for information about one of her project when she was pregnant with Luna. The birth on top of the torture… Selene was lucky to live, let alone give birth to a healthy child. Luna is quite a bit like her mother, you know."

"What happened to her?"

"She died in an accident five years ago. One of her experiments… well the results were unpleasant."

Luna walked back into the room. Sirius turned and left.

"So," said Dinah. "What do you plan to do after Hogwarts?"

"I already have a job," said Luna. "I suppose I'll get married. Have some children. The usual. I don't even need to leave that house to do my job."

* * *

"Hey Roy."

"Dinah. How are you?"

"Good. Why don't you go downstairs. Lian can stay up here with me."

'What's going on downstairs?"

"All I know is that somebody decided that sparing would be fun."

* * *

The first thing Roy noticed when he entered the basement was Harry sparring with a red haired boy he didn't recognize. The next thing he noticed was the two men sitting off to the side. Obviously Harry's Godfather and somebody else.

The two boys were good. Considering how long Harry had been learning, he was very good. Right around Mia's level. And that redhead was certainly giving Harry a run for his money. He hadn't expected Harry to become that good so soon.

Eventually Harry pinned the boy. The boy said, "Give." At which point both boys flopped down on the floor.

"That was good," said Roy. "You've definitely improved."

"Roy!" exclaimed Harry. "Guys, this is my cousin, Roy. Roy, this is my best mate, Ron, my Godfather, Sirius Black, and this is Remus Lupin. He and Sirius were my Dad's best mates. Where's Lian?"

"In the kitchen with Luna and Dinah."

"Dinah's here? I didn't know that."

Roy shrugged. "I think she went straight to the kitchen. Get that bow of yours; let's see how you're doing."

* * *

"Nah," said Tonks. "They only know if Muggleborns use magic out of school."

"What?" said Hermione. "H-how?"

"Well, first of all, they only monitor for magic in non-magical homes. They only check for magic based on location, not wand signature. And, they expect magical parents to discipline their children."

"I want you to tell me everything you know about these procedures," demanded Hermione.

* * *

"So who taught you how to fight?"

"A friend of Mr. Granger's," said Ron.

"Ah. And Mr. Granger is…"

"Hermione's father," said Harry. "Former career soldier. He had to quit after he injured his back. He's a dentist these days."

* * *

"Hello?" Connor answered the phone, wondering who would call the Youth Center.

"Hey kid. I need a ride from the airport."

"You know I don't have a license, Eddie. And what are you doing here, anyway?"

"Had a couple days off, thought I'd visit."


	20. Chapter 20

I know I promised something long, but this is all I have. I just haven't had much time during the past month to write. First I had almost no computer time while at home and then when I came back to college for the semester I found out that somebody I knew had committed suicide.

Chapter 20

Harry stared at his friends. What could he say? "It's not that important."

Hermione shook her head. "Harry, aren't you the least bit worried about where Luna gets her information from? At the very least she's a security risk."

Ron leaned against Harry's headboard. Harry, Hermione, and Ron had retreated to his room for some alone time before dinner. "I don't think it's that big a deal."

"Harry, she knew my codename. Who knows what else she could find out."

"She's find out what she finds out," said Ron. "I really don't think there's any way to stop Luna. She and I have been neighbors forever. Luna always knows things she couldn't possibly know. You just have to accept it."

"How can you-"

Ignoring Hermione's outraged question, Harry said, "Am I right in assuming she's in touch with her inner eye."

"Probably," shrugged Ron. "I mean, her great great grandmother was this amazing seer. Even after she had a child out of wedlock people would still come to see Eos Lovegood for readings."

That seemed to stop Hermione short. Having a child out of wedlock was more than frowned upon; both the mother and father of the child were ostracized with the exception of a woman becoming pregnant by rape. To have people continue to see this woman after giving birth to an illegitimate child, she must have been more than just an "amazing seer."

"Most of the female Lovegoods are seers," shrugged Ron. "It's just like Potters tend to be warriors, Weasleys are good with fertility magic, that sort of thing. It's no big deal."

Hermione blinked at Ron. "How many seers are there in the Lovegood family?"

"Only Luna," sighed Harry. "In the past, I'm not sure how many. Sirius said that Luna's mother was really in touch with her inner eye, not as in touch as Luna, but…"

"I get the point," said Hermione. "So the Lovegood women…"

"Make Trelawny look like an amateur," said Ron.

"And you don't have a problem dating somebody who knows the future."

"I like Luna, a lot," Harry said quietly. "And I like dating her. And she's… she's not after me for what I am, which is more than I can say for a lot of girls back at school. Not to mention the fact that she has yet to predict my death. And she's really smart. When we were working on our homework together she understood the theory better than I did. She makes me happy."

Ron gave him a disbelieving sort of look while Hermione smiled.

* * *

"We don't have any free beds at the moment," explained Connor. "But I think we can find you a place to sleep."

"Why don't you have any free beds? You guys live in a three story brownstone," griped Eddie.

"Well, Dad just became legal guardian of one of our cousins, Harry. It's his birthday tomorrow and some of his friends are here. They're staying until Tuesday night."

Connor had borrowed Ollie's car to pick Eddie up from the airport. He had gotten his license several months earlier and still did not own his own car.

"What friends?"

"His girlfriend, Luna, godfather, Sirius. Remus, a friend of the family. Some woman named Tonks-she's a cop, by the way. And Hermioen and Ron."

Eddie became very still. "Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley?"

Connor let out a snort. "You the one that's been training those two? According to Harry they're being taught by a friend of Hermione's father from back when he was in Black Ops."

"Yeah, I am. Are you teach Harry the… family business."

Connor nodded. "He'll be ready to go out on the streets in a couple days. Apparently he's planning on starting a team with Hermione and Ron as members."

"At least I know who Harry is now. Those two are very loyal to him, you know."

"When do you think the two of them will be ready?"

"Ron, I'd say by the end of August, so long as he keeps up his training. Hermione, I'm not sure. She's a crack shot, make a good sniper, but her abilities when it comes to hand-to-hand leave a lot to be desired. If Ron helps teach her during the school year, Christmas at the earliest. I'd feel better with next summer. I'd need to see how the three of them work together."

* * *

Luna put the various dishes on the table, carefully arranging them to her satisfaction. Dinah was helping Lian set the table.

Luna had to admit that, like Harry she was rather fond of the little girl. Even if the girl did make her think about her brother that could have been. Lian would make a wonderful Gryffindor, or maybe a Hufflepuff.

"Lian, could you tell Harry that dinner is ready?" Luna asked.

"Yup," nodded the girl as she ran out of the room.

"Dinah, could you get the men from the basement? I need to get the door."

Dinah blinked as Luna calmly walked toward the front door.

* * *

The door opened before Ollie could touch it. Having lent Connor the car, he had walked home. Luna, Harry's slightly crazed girlfriend (in Ollie's opinion, at least), stood in the doorway wearing a horribly mismatching outfit with an apron over it.

"Hello, Mr. Queen. Dinner is ready, everybody should be at the table soon."

Ollie raised an eyebrow at the girl. He would have said something, however, Connor chose that moment to park the car. With a mental shrug Ollie walked inside.

"Thanks," said Ollie. "Did you make dinner by yourself?"

"Dinah helped," said Luna, not moving from her spot.

If Ollie hadn't known for a fact that witches and wizards were treated as equals both legally and socially in the wizarding world, he would have been up in arms. Sometimes Luna acted like Harry's wife. She cooked for him, always wore a skirt (apparently witches were expected to wear skirts unless participating in sports or other such activities. He would have said something about that, but Luna didn't really seem to care), she even did some of Harry's mending for him. Sometimes it seemed that every time Ollie saw Luna she had either a book or sewing in her hands.

* * *

Harry walked down the stairs, a laughing Lian in his arms. Hermione had this sentimental look on her face and Ron just seemed oblivious as usual.

"Nuh-uh," said Lian.

"Yup," countered Harry. "Hi Luna, Uncle Ollie, Connor, uh, guy I don't know."

With a screech, Hermione slipped and bounced down the last three steps. Ron gripped the banister, the blood draining from his face.

Harry gently put Lian down and helped Hermione stand back up. Ron seemed to recover, walking down the rest of the stairs.

"Hi, Eddie," said Hermione.

"We'll have to work on your reactions to the unexpected when we get back to training," said the man Harry didn't know. "So, what's this I hear about dinner?"

"This way, Mr. Fyers," said Luna. "I made sure that a place was set for you between Connor and Hermione." She paused, looking at everybody who standing still. "Dinner is getting cold."

* * *

Eddie watched Luna out of the corner of his eye. Out of all the people in the room, she was the only one he didn't know or who hadn't been vouched for by Ollie or Connor. Neither had really said much of anything about her other than she was Harry's girlfriend and that her father was or had been a government agent of some sort.

As he watched her, Eddie was strongly reminded of housewives in the movies. She acted just like one of those nineteen fifties housewives from movies. If she had a strand of pearls she could have passed for June Cleaver or that witch Elizabeth Montgomery played in Bewitched.

From what he had gathered, all of Harry's guests were witches and wizards. Something Dinah and Roy didn't know, according to Connor. Apparently Harry had only given Ollie permission to tell Connor and Mia about Harry's powers.

"So what are we doing tomorrow?" asked Ollie.

"I'm not sure what the kids are doing in the morning, but in the afternoon we're having the party," explained Sirius. "What are we doing about a cake, anyway?"

"It just came out of the oven," said Luna. "I'll frost it tomorrow."

"We could play football," suggested Harry. "There's a park nearby where we can play."

"How do you-" Ron started to say.

Hermione elbowed him discretely. "Sounds like fun. What does everybody else think?"

It seemed that Dinah had picked up on Hermione's actions, but Roy hadn't noticed. Eddie leaned back in his seat. This was going to be interesting.

"I think I'll stay here. Don't feel like getting arrested," said Sirius.

"I'll stay with you," said Remus. "We could go over your… plans again."

Harry gave a curt nod. "Tonk?"

The pink haired Auror shrugged. "Sure, I haven't played football in a while."

"I should be done with the cake before breakfast," said Luna.

"I'm in," said Mia.

"Me too," said Connor.

"Can I go? Please?" said Lian.

"Sure, I'll go too," said Roy.

"You guys have fun," said Ollie. "I think I'll stay here."

"So how's your summer work coming?" asked Hermione.

"Luna and I finished ours first two weeks of vacation," said Harry.

"I knew you brainy types were a bad influence," muttered Ron.

"Ronald," said Hermione, her voice low and dangerous. "You finished your summer work last month."

"Exactly," said Ron, not noticing the way Harry winced and edged away from him.

* * *

Lian sat on the edge of the field, watching the game. She had gotten tired, so Luna and Uncle Harry had set given her some juice and told her to rejoin the game when she wasn't as tired. She really liked Luna and rather hoped that Luna would soon become Aunt Luna. Sure, Uncle Harry had turned funny colors when she'd asked when he'd marry Luna, but Lian was sure that he just hadn't decided on a date.

Sipping her juice she began to look at what the others had left behind. A couple bags. Nothing interesting in them. Some food. A pretty stick. Lian tilted her head to the side. She glanced at the people on the field. None of them were looking. She reached out to touch the stick.

* * *

Harry stopped short, barely noticing the football hitting him in the head. The air was full of butterflies and sparkles in unnatural colors.

Giggling could be heard at the edge of the field. Harry's eyes widened at the sight of Lian waving a wand around, butterflies coming out of the tip.

"What the hell?" said Roy.

"Apparently your daughter is magical," Tonks explained. "Who left their wand where Lian could find it?"

"Mine's on me," said Harry.

"It's in my purse," explained Hermione.

"Mine is ebony and unicorn tail hair," said Luna. "I believe that is either willow or ash."

Harry noted the way Ron paled. "I think it's mine."

"I'll get your wand back," volunteered Luna.

Before anybody had a chance to object, Luna was halfway across the field. The two girls seemed to have a short conversation followed by Lian handing the wand to Luna.

"Magical? What do you mean, magical?"

"You want to explain or should I?" asked Connor.

"I'll do it," said Harry. "Roy, I'm a wizard, I go to a school for witches and wizards. Ron's a wizards and Luna and Hermione are witches. Tonks is a witch as well. She really is in law enforcement. She's an Auror, which by non-magical standards would be something between the Police and Special Forces. Both my parents were magical as well. And only somebody with magical abilities could have done what your daughter did."

"Why wasn't I told about this?" demanded Roy.

"Because Harry only told Dad after he found out the Hogwarts was a school of magic," explained Connor. "Mia and I only know because we live with him. The magical community has very strict laws about who can and cannot be told that they have their own government, schools, a hidden society."

"That still doesn't explain why I wasn't told."

Harry looked down. "Because I didn't know you or Dinah all that well at the time."

"So what does this magical community thing mean for my daughter?"

Tonks smiled and began to explain.


	21. Chapter 21

Notes: I know, the world may just be coming to an end. I have updated! Sorry about taking so long, but I've been a bit-ok, a lot distracted. And my muse has finally decided to cooperate! Maybe I won't have to get out the thumb screws. Anyway, I'll try to update on a semi-regular basis, but no guarantees.

* * *

Chapter 21

Harry sat on a chair, Luna in his lap, listening to Tonks, Sirius, and Remus explain the way the magical world worked to a slightly mystified Roy. He wasn't quite as shocked as he could have been, but that was likely influenced by his superhero career.

"Does she have to go to Hogwarts?" asked Roy.

"I was only suggesting Hogwarts because it's one of the best schools," said Tonks. "You do want her to learn to use her magic, right?"

"Of course she should learn to use her powers," snapped Roy. "But there are perfectly good schools here. Salem, there's another in the Pine Barrens if I remember correctly, one in New Orleans, two in Mexico, another in California."

"I didn't know you knew about those," said Harry.

"The man who raised me after my father died-Brave Bow-was a wizard. He was trained through an apprenticeship, but he told me a lot about your world," explained Roy.

"I guess we're a bit biased toward Hogwarts," said Harry. "We're all students or alumni of Hogwarts. And aren't relatives of students or alumni of Hogwarts automatically invited when it's time for them to get their magical education?"

"Yeah," said Remus. "It's the only reason why anybody outside of the British Isles ever attends the school. Roy and Lian are your cousins, so she'd receive an invitation. Not to mention that the two of them lived in Ireland for a while. Chances are, she's already on the list because of that."

"But you have a good five, six years to think about which school to send her to or if she should apply for an apprenticeship instead," said Sirius. "You don't need to make a decision anytime soon."

"So Tom Riddle is a dark wizard," said Roy, changing the subject.

"Yup," said Tonks. "Right nasty git. Thinks that only those of purely magical descent should be allowed to live. He's tried to kill Harry-what was it?-twice now."

"Four times, actually," said Sirius. "Only two of the times are public knowledge, although Fudge is doing his best to make Harry look like an attention-seeking lunatic with delusions of grandeur right now."

"Four times?"

"I'll explain later, Roy," said Ollie. "What's this about chocolate trying to malign Harry's name?"

"Uh, Cornelius Fudge is the Minister of Magic-our duly elected leader in magical Britain. He doesn't want to believe that Riddle has regained his body, but Harry and Professor Dumbledore keep saying that he is," explained Sirius. "Dumbledore is one of the most respected and powerful wizards in the United Kingdom and the Headmaster of Hogwarts. He defeated Grindelwald in 1944-uh, Grindelwald was a very powerful dark wizard that worked for Hitler. Anyway, Harry's a hero among our people for defeating Riddle the day his parents died. He's about as famous as Superman in the right circles."

"Ugh. Did you have to tell them that?" griped Harry. "I was trying avoid mentioning the fame thing. And those arseholes made me a hero because I lived when my parents didn't. I was a baby. I don't deserve-or want-any of that fame."

Harry wrapped his arms tighter around Luna's waist. "I don't mind that my parents are famous, but I wish they'd been famous for the right reasons. I mean, my father was an Auror and responsible for a sixth of all Death Eater arrests during the war. My mother was a potions mistress and was the one who developed the first version of the Wolfsbane Potion-it helps werewolves during the full moon-and a bunch of other really useful potions. But who wants to be famous for living when their parents didn't?"

"Anyway, Fudge is doing his best to have Harry and Dumbledore discredited whenever and wherever possible," said Sirius. "And it seems to be working. Of course, the Wizarding World is made up of a bunch of sheep. What do you expect? And there aren't any laws that will help Harry in this case. We're quite a bit behind the times. He couldn't even sue the Daily Prophet for libel."

"I'm sure Daddy would be willing to assign one of our reporters to tell Harry's side of the story if he would give a couple interviews," said Luna. "At the very least, the agents would believe him, even if the rest of our people wouldn't."

"Actually, that'd be a good idea," said Hermione. "I mean, the magazine may print outlandish things-by Wizarding standards-but since a lot of what it publishes is true, those who know the truth about the Quibbler would believe Harry's side." She paused. "If your father would be willing to work with Rita Skeeter I could get her to write up an article or two-she'll jump at a chance to be allowed to write again. Especially if I let her start writing again full time after the articles come out."

"Rita who?" said Dinah

"Nasty little bitch that thinks yellow journalism should be a national pastime," explained Hermione. "Her stories are rarely based in anything resembling fact, but she's very popular."

"Right, we'll talk about this later," said Ollie. "I do believe this is supposed to be a birthday party."

* * *

Harry raised an eyebrow at the cake in front of him. It was shaped like a bow with an arrow drawn. Although there were no signs of the hands that should be there. While the frosting was dyed to make it look like there was an actual bow and arrow, the space without said objects had white frosting. The words: Happy Birthday Harry, were elegantly written in red frosting.

He squeezed Luna's waist. "Thanks, Luna. This is the nicest cake I've ever received." He didn't bother to mention that it was the only cake anyone had ever made for him.

The candles were quickly lit and Happy Birthday was sung. Once Harry had blown out the candles and cut the first piece, he was practically pushed back into his seat in the armchair.

Luna handed him two pieces of cake before settling on the ground between his legs. She reached up, accepting the piece of cake Harry handed her, then leaned her head against his left knee.

"Harry, do you want to open your gifts now?" asked Hermione.

"What? Oh, sure," said Harry.

Harry placed his slice of cake on the table next to him. With that gifts were quickly handed out.

He received a rather nice longbow and quiver of arrows from Ollie (he already had his own composite bow), a Sinatra CD and an Andrew Sisters CD from Mia, a number of history, law, and battle tactics books from Connor, crossbow from Roy, and a Dean Martin CD and a CD player from Dinah. Hermione gave him a book on Voldemort during the first war and a box of Honeyduke's chocolate. From Ron he received a box a Bertie Bot's Every-Flavor Beans along with some treats for Hedwig. Tonks gave him a Weird Sisters t-shirt and a wilderness survival book.

Remus handed him a large box. "I have a feeling you'll find these useful."

Harry quickly unwrapped and opened the box. Inside was a number of hand mirrors, a knife, some salt, several potion ingredients, a stone cauldron, and a book entitled: Magical Communication: Fire Calls, Post Owls, and More.

"I-wow. Is this how you-" Harry stuttered. "Thank you!"

"I thought you'd like to know how to make communication mirrors of your own," said Remus.

"Right," said Sirius. "As my heir, this is yours by right."

Sirius took the box from Harry's lap and replaced it with a long, heavy box. He then placed another box on top of that.

Harry opened the top box. There were a number of different types of knives in the box, most of which Harry was at least passably familiar with. Each knife had a sheath with a number of runes on it. Harry carefully put the box in the table, leaving it open for the others to see.

While they were looking at the blades, Harry opened the other box. In it was a very well kept arming sword. The summer after his second year Harry had done quite a bit of research on swords in the local library. Though much plainer, the sword looked to be of better quality than Gryffindor's sword. Although it was difficult to tell with it sheathed in its scabbard.

"This is-this is an arming sword, right? From-"

"Yup," said Sirius. "It's been in the family for the better part of the last millennia. The sword is supposed to be used by the heir to the family-you. I'd like a sparring match before I leave-to see what you've been learning from your family. You can practice at school with Ron. I know that Arthur's teaching him to use a sword as well."

"Whoa. I just-thank you. Thanks," said Harry. "Could we spar tonight? After dinner?"

There were several exchanged looks before Ollie nodded, prompting Sirius to say, "Sounds good to me."

Harry let Luna reach up from her spot on the floor to take the box away. She carefully put it on the table next to the knives and then pulled out a box. She paused, glancing at Eddie.

"Harry, would you care if Mr. Fyers and Tonks were to find out?"

"Find out what, Luna?" asked Harry, more than a bit confused.

"The secret you share with your family, Hermione, and Ron."

"Why don't we talk about this in my room, Luna," said Harry. "We'll be right back. Enjoy the party, eat cake, whatever, while we're gone."

* * *

Luna followed Harry up the stairs to his room, carrying his birthday present. She was just grateful that she'd asked first. Luna hadn't been sure who Harry did and did not want to be told.

Once Harry had closed and locked his door, he turned to look at Luna.

After staring at her for several long moments, Harry asked, "How in touch with your inner eye are you?"

"I knew that you were going to become involved in your maternal family's line of work weeks before you even decided on a codename. Although I'm not sure why you would use Redhood. It's so easy to connect to Little Red Riding Hood," said Luna. "and this year you'll need to keep your temper-in public at least. The Toad will do anything to help Chocolate."

"Are you going to tell anyone?"

"Why would I do that?" asked Luna. "You should open your gift. I made it for you. There are more, but I haven't finished them all. Those are only the ones I've managed to complete. I'll give you the rest when we get back to school."

Harry hesitantly opened the box. His eyes widened, then he started to pull bits of clothing out. A pair of loose linen pants and a loose, hooded linen shirt that laced up in the front, both a deep shade red. After that came a pair of leather gloves and a pair of leather boots. The boots would reach mid-calf when laced. He pulled out a triangle of red cloth with eyeholes. After that came the only bit of armor Luna had been able to include. The vest was made of leather and when worn would reach mid-thigh. It fastened in the front with toggles and had slits at either side of his hips to ensure that it wouldn't impede his movement. He then took out a leather belt strong enough to hold his sword and whatever other weapon he wanted to attach there.

"I'm planning on making you several cloaks, but I wanted to check with you to ensure that the design used wouldn't impair the use of your bow-or any other weapon," explained Luna. "I made sure that Daddy put spells on them to make them more durable."

"I-Luna. This is-this is too much," said Harry. "Far too much. Thank you."

Before Luna could react Harry pulled her in for a kiss. Luna was thoroughly winded by the time Harry let her go.

* * *

Harry and Luna returned to the party half an hour after they left. One of the straps of Luna's white sundress was falling off her shoulder and her loose hair was slightly mussed. Harry's shirt was unevenly tucked into his pants and his hair was even messier than usual-if that was possible. Nobody said anything, although Hermione gave them a disapproving look.

By the time dinner had passed, everybody was looking forward to seeing Sirius and Harry's sparring match, if only to find out if they would accidentally cut off their own legs. Unfortunately, Tonks lost that particular bet (she refused to kiss Roy, punching him instead).

As Harry had only been learning to use a sword for a little under two months, the results were inevitable. But Sirius held back long enough for Harry to prove that while he did not have the skill yet, he would one day.

* * *

"No way," giggled Tonks as she leaned closer to her companion.

It was all Eddie could do not to roll his eyes. Luckily she wasn't laying it on too thick. Conner wasn't really the type to like particularly forward women. He wasn't even sure if Connor had noticed that the young Auror was flirting with him, but didn't intend to say anything. The boy had to learn at some point.

"He did," said Connor.

Her giggles turned into full blown laughter. After she calmed down, Tonks explained, "That's nothing. I was in the same year as Charlie-Ron's older brother, well, one of Ron's older brothers. Anyway, he once…"

"Ten pounds says she asks him out before the end of the summer."

Eddie turned to look at Sirius Black. "I'm not that stupid, Black. Ten says she asks him out and he turns her down before the end of the summer."

"Fine, he says yes, I win."

"Deal."

The doorbell rang, causing Hermione to nearly fall off her chair. She'd been full of nervous energy the entire morning. Apparently she had a job interview with Luna's father-the editor of the Quibbler.

"I'll get it," said Harry, standing up from the table.


	22. Chapter 22

I know this isn't quite as long as the previous chapter, but it ended where it wanted to end. Anyway, a really quick update, but I wouldn't grow to expect them from now on.

* * *

Chapter 22

"Hermione, Mr. Lovegood is here to see you," announced Harry, walking back into the kitchen.

Connor's eyes narrowed when he saw the man. The reason for Harry's fear was rather obvious. Jake Lovegood was well over six feet in height and the type of muscular that came from training, not weight lifting alone. Not to mention that the man walked like a soldier of some sort rather than an untrained civilian. There was something familiar about the man, but Connor couldn't quite put his finger on it.

"You two can talk in the living room," said Connor. "I'll make sure the kids don't disturb you."

Hermione was practically shaking and the pieces of parchment in her hands were fluttering. Oddly enough, instead of the knee length skirts Connor had seen the girl wear before, she was dressed rather strangely. She wore an ankle length skirt, a blouse, and a vest with every button secured. Her hair was carefully pinned into a complicated up do reminiscent of the 1910s with a thin scarf wrapped around her head, one end in front, the other in the back.

"Thank you, Mr…"

"Hawke, Connor Hawke. I'm Harry's cousin."

"Ah."

"Hey Jakey," said Sirius.

"Sirius, you old dog. I hadn't known you were going to be here," said Jake.

"Like I'd miss my godson's birthday."

Jake glanced toward Harry, muttering, "I hadn't realized… Sirius, we have to catch up soon."

"Can't do it today, I'm helping the kids with a project. Maybe later this week."

"Sounds good."

Once Hermione and Jake were out of the room, Harry bonelessly sunk into a chair next to Tonks. He seemed rather relieved, which was understandable considering how terrified Harry was of his girlfriend's father.

"Why was Hermione…"

"Dressed that way?" said Tonks, completing Connor's sentence. "She was wearing the Wizarding equivalent of a women's business suit. Good girls don't go to work with their hair uncovered or their ankles showing, you know."

"Is that why the girls are always wearing skirts?"

Harry and Tonks nodded.

"But-"

"I'm an Auror," Tonks said, as if it explained it all. "The uniform is different for men and women, but we still get to wear trousers to work. And I was raised in the non-magical world. My mother may be pureblood, but my father is Muggle-Born. And I'm not going to wear a skirt just because society thinks I should."

* * *

"How did you get your information for these two articles?" asked Jake.

Hermione calmly breathed in, then out. "I interviewed Auror Nymphadora Tonks-she accidentally mentioned how the Minitry monitored underage magic. When I asked, she explained the entire monitoring system. Sirius Black and Remus Lupin confirmed Auror Tonks's information. For the second article, I interviewed Remus Lupin, who was outed as a werewolf a little over a year ago."

Jake nodded, then motioned to the other two articles. "And these?"

"I watch the Muggle News when at home and I have several muggle newspapers delivered to me while at school. When I read a story that interested me, I went to the library to do some more research."

"And what would you do at school?" asked Jake.

"I suppose that I would order another two or three international papers and write home for research materials when necessary."

"What do you want to do with your life?"

"I want to be a writer. I'll admit that I was more interested in writing books before Luna told me of the position that would soon be opening in the Quibbler." She paused, biting her lip. "The wizarding world is dangerously ignorant of what goes on in the Muggle world. Not to mention that the general discrimination against most magical beings and creatures is absolutely atrocious. They use slaves, for heaven's sake."

"Slaves?"

"House-Elves," explained Hermione. "It's so horrible, the way House-Elves are treated. Have you ever seen one punish himself for doing something he considers wrong? Last year I started SPEW, the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare, but there was almost no interest at Hogwarts."

* * *

Hermione practically danced back into the kitchen. "Sirius, Mr. Lovegood wants to talk to you before he leaves."

"I'll be right back," said Sirius, walking into the living room.

Hermione gracefully sat next to Harry, unwrapping the scarf.

"Well, how did it go?" asked Harry.

"He bought my articles and said that he'd tell me by the end of the week if I had the job or not," explained Hermione. "And he joined SPEW. He wants to start handing out pamphlets at work. Which reminds me-I need to make some pamphlets."

"I'm almost afraid to ask, but what is SPEW," said Tonks.

"The Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare," explained Harry. "Ron, Nev, and I are members. Uh, I'm the secretary, Hermione's our President, and Ron's the treasurer."

"Our long-term goals are to end House-Elf enslavement, changing the law about non-wand-use and trying to get an elf into the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures," explained Hermione. "Our short term goals are to get laws passed that would put a stop to the rampant abuse House-Elves suffer, try to encourage more people to hire free House-Elves at fair wages, promote the formation of unions, and raise House-Elf awareness."

"How much does it cost to join?" asked Tonks.

"Two sickles-that's a dollar eighteen," explained Hermione. "I'll send your badges when I get back if you join."

Tonks fished a galleon out of her pocket, handing it over to Hermione. "For me. Use the rest to help with these panphlets."

Connor turned to look at Harry. "How are House-Elves treated? What are House-Elves?"

Harry gave a very quick summary about House-Elves in general. Then he went on to talk about Winky and Dobby.

Connor nodded, then handed Hermione a twenty. "It's for my membership-keep the change. You'll probably get more money and members if you talk to Dad. He likes to support these sorts of movements."

* * *

"Right you three," said Sirius, once everybody had finished their lunch. "We should do this now."

"We can use the gym downstairs," volunteered Harry.

"What are you doing?"

Harry turned to look at Ollie. "Completing a magical ritual that we've been working on for the better part of the last two months."

"Don't worry, if anything goes wrong, there are three fully trained wizards here to fix it," said Tonks. "And anyway, it's all perfectly legal."

"What sort of magical ritual?" asked Roy.

Harry and Sirius exchanged a glance before Harry answered. "The animagus transformation."

"Huh. Good luck. Would you mind showing me your form when you've finished it?"

"Roy? What the hell are they talking about?"

"They're just going to turn themselves into animals," said Roy with a shrug. "Most of the boys with any magic were trained as Animagi by Brave Bow. It's a bit dangerous, but with an Auror present, it won't get to the point of life threatening."

"And I'm an Animagus," added Sirius. "James and I were their age when we did this and we did just fine without any help from adults."

"Wait-how does-"

"You guys get going, I'll explain it," said Roy.

"Do you mind if I watch?" asked Connor, getting to his feet.

"Just stand by me and don't interfere," said Tonks. "Sirius and Remus are the ones in charge of this thing."

* * *

Harry said the spell carefully. A mispronounced word could seriously injure him. Once it was done, he gulped down a potion.

With that he felt his bones begin to move and shrink. It was all he could do not to show how much pain he was in. Though the Cruciatus curse was much more painful, this was still much more than he'd been expecting.

After what seemed like forever, the transformation ended, leaving Harry in his animal form. It took him a moment to figure out how to use his paws properly. Once capable of walking, he went to explore the room.

* * *

Connor couldn't help but blink as his cousin turned into a mongoose. A slender, or black-tailed, mongoose, if he remembered correctly. Next to him, Hermione changed into some sort of otter while a fox sat in Ron's place.

"So what now?" asked Connor.

"They'll change back when they want to," explained Tonks. "And from now on they can change from human to their particular type of animal whenever they want."

"And Sirius is an Animagus as well."

"A big black dog," nodded Tonks. "He looks like a grim-uh, a hell hound."

"Ah. So did you ever…"

"I couldn't become an Animagus if I wanted to," explained Tonks. "I'm a metamorphmagus, a shapeshifter."

"What are your limits?"

"Oh, the usual. My mass can't be changed, neither can my bones. But I can change my pigment and soft tissue any way I want."

With that Tonks changed her hair from purple to bubble-gum pink. Her skin grew paler and her heart-shaped face became a bit more oval while her cheekones became less pronounced. Her eyes, which had been blue, changed to brown. All in all, she looked completely different.

"Is this genetic or learned?" asked Connor.

"Genetic. Mum and her sisters all have the power to some extent. We inherited it from my maternal grandmother, Druella Rosier."

"I-"

Whatever Connor was going to say was interrupted by Harry changing back. Harry shook his head, then came to stand over by Tonks and Connor.

"I can't believe you did tell me you were a mongoose!" said Sirius.

"What? I wanted it to be a surprise, Padfoot. Mooney, I think Padfoot needs to be taken for walks more often."

"I can't help but agree, Tavi," said Remus. "At leas the name you picked now makes sense."

"Name? why are you calling each other by those names?"

"It's traditional," said Harry. "You see, when my father and his friends started the Marauders they all took nicknames based upon their animal half's form. Padfoot for a dog, Mooney for a werewolf, Wormtail for that rat," he spit out Wormtail's name. "And Prongs for a stag-that's my father, by the way. So I picked tavi because I'm a mongoose, Hermione picked whiskers because… well I'm not sure why, but I suppose it fits. And Ron picked Trick because foxes are generally thought of as tricksters."

"The Marauders were a group of pranksters, right?"

"Are, not were, and yup. We're already planning on starting a prank war when we get back to Hogwarts, on top of studying for our OWLs and continuing our training."

"Kind of make me glad I already graduated," muttered Tonks.

"Oh don't worry, you would have been pretty low on our list anyway."

"And who's high on the list?" asked Connor.

Harry paused, then explained. "We've talked about it, and we'll be starting out with anybody that hurt Luna. Then we'll move on to our own enemies." He paused. "Most of the school ostracizes Luna because they think she's strange, but a couple of them have done some really nasty stuff to her."


End file.
